Air India is looking to buy more widebody jets as it expands overseas and works to return to profitability.
“We want more widebody aircraft,” CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said Tuesday at the Aviation India and South Asia summit in New Delhi, according to Reuters. The carrier has held talks with both Airbus and Boeing. Gebremariam did not say how many aircraft Air India might buy.
The airline’s most recent Boeing order, announced in January, was for 30 narrowbodies: 20 737 MAX 8s and 10 MAX 10s.
The carrier is also updating the widebodies it already flies. In April, Air India took delivery of the first of 26 older Boeing 787-8s slated for cabin retrofits. The aircraft went from two cabins to three with the addition of premium economy.
Gebremariam, who previously led Ethiopian Airlines, described high operating costs as a “major concern” but said he expects Air India to return to profitability “very soon.”
Air India Group lost S$3.56 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, according to financial disclosures from Singapore Airlines, which owns a 25% stake in the group. The loss came as the carrier dealt with disruption from the war in Iran and Pakistan’s closure of its airspace to Indian airlines.
