Air India (AI, Delhi International) has taken delivery of the first of a 21-strong batch of leased A320-200Ns and expects the remainder to arrive by August 2024, according to CEO Campbell Wilson. The airline has also taken delivery of its second A350-900.

In September 2022, Air India announced that it would lease the twenty-one A321-200Ns and four A321-200NX to address a "capacity and connectivity need." At the time, Wilson did not disclose the identity of the lessors. However, the first A320-200N, VT-RTF (msn 11705), which ferried into Delhi from Toulouse Blagnac on October 11, comes from CALC. The four A321-200NX - VT-RTB (msn 11113), VT-RTC (msn 11156), VT-RTD (msn 11183), and VT-RTE (msn 11260), respectively, have already been delivered and were sourced from AerCap.

“This week saw the arrival of yet another aircraft – the first of 21 A320Ns," Wilson told Air India employees in an internal email this week and reported in The Business Standard. "The remaining twenty A320neo (are) progressively arriving between now and August 2024."

The leased Airbus narrowbodies are separate to the 470-strong order placed by Air India earlier this year that included 250 planes sourced from Airbus and 220 from Boeing. The Airbus order included 210 A320N family aircraft and forty A350s, including thirty-four A350-1000s and six A350-900s. The first A350-900 has already been delivered, with Air India taking VT-JRA (msn 554) in September and the second being handed over more recently.

"We also took delivery of our second A350, VT-JRB (msn 558), which is now undergoing livery changes and other modifications in Toulouse before arriving in New Delhi in January 2024," said Wilson. The six A350-900s are planes taken up by Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo).

Air India's existing fleet includes twenty A319-100s, nine A320-200s, twenty-eight A320-200Ns, fourteen A321-200s, the four A321-200NX, the two A350-900s, eight B777-200LRs, fourteen B777-300ERs, and twenty-seven B787-8s. Boeing's share of the order earlier this year included 190 B737 MAX, twenty B787 types, and ten B777 types.