Air India takes first leased A320neo from late 3Q22 order

Air India 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, which ferried into Delhi from Toulouse Blagnac on October 11, comes from CALC. The other four 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.<br/>