Air India and Indigo, received Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)nod to import aircraft, the Ministry of Civil Aviation announced in a statement.
“India and Interglobe Aviation have been granted in-principal approval for import of 470 and 500 aircraft, respectively. The cost of acquiring these aircraft, which is a commercial transaction between the airline and the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), is not available with it,” the statement read.
“Availability of parking slots is ensured at the time of grant of No Objection Certificate (NOC) for actual import of aircraft,” the statement added. As per the induction plan of the airlines, the aircraft are proposed to be imported during 2023-2035.
According to Air India's plans, it is seeking to import a total of 210 A320 Neo aircraft, 140 B737 aircraft, 40 A350 aircraft, 10 B777-9 aircraft, 20 B787-9 aircraft, and 50 B737-8 aircraft.
Indigo will import 500 A320 Neo aircraft.
Currently, Air India manages close to 220 aircraft across all four airlines while IndiGo has close to 315 aircraft.
The DGCA's approval comes at a time when airlines in India with around 700 aircraft are grappling with parking charges. The Delhi and Mumbai airport that are used as hubs by majority airlines across India have a combined parking capacity of 364 aircraft for the close to 700 planes among them.
There are 233 parking stands in Delhi for narrowbody and widebody planes and 131 for narrowbody aircraft in Mumbai. Going ahead the upcoming Noida International Airport in Jewar, operational by next year will have25 parking stands while the upcoming Navi Mumbai airport will also add to parking capacity.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has also planned to add 273 parking bays at 24 airports to help resolve parking issues.