A-I gets PIB nod to buy 68 aircraft

The Public Investment Board (PIB) on Thursday approved Air India’s (A-I) proposal to purchase 68 aircraft from Boeing. The proposal wou...

The Public Investment Board (PIB) on Thursday approved Air India’s (A-I) proposal to purchase 68 aircraft from Boeing. The proposal would now be put forward to the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) for final approval.

The PIB, which is headed by expenditure secretary of the finance ministry, also gave its approval for a sovereign-guarantee for the purchase, which would be up to 85 per cent of the total acquisition cost. This proposal too would be put forward to the CCEA.

Under the proposal, 50 aircraft would be acquired for A-I while 18 would be for Air-India Express, the airline’s low-cost arm. The 50 aircraft to be purchased from Boeing include 23 B-777s (8 B-777-200s, 15 B-777-300s (extended range) and 27 B-787s. The 18 aircraft for Air-India Express are all B737-800s.

While the list price for these aircraft is expected to be around $8 billion, the PIB would recommend to the CCEA a maximum price that the government could pay for these aircraft. Currently, negotiations between A-I and Boeing are still underway and therefore secretary expenditure Adarsh Kishore did not reveal what price the government had in mind.

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