Air India hopes new widebodies will help it reach US growth potential

Air India's management believes that the airline will be able to continue growing its network and attain full potential in long-haul markets such as the United States as it takes delivery of more new widebody aircraft. With the upcoming merger with Vistara, the airline will see more widebody aircraft inducted into its fleet, along with the delivery of new Boeing and Airbus widebody aircraft from Air India's record-breaking order last year. Since Air India's privatization, the airline has experienced significant growth in its route network and fleet strength. With a record-breaking order of 470 aircraft last year, which will see the airline's narrowbody and widebody fleet grow with new Boeing and Airbus aircraft, Air India can finally expand into various underserved markets<br/>While the airline has previously operated Boeing 777s and Boeing 787s, the carrier has now begun operating the Airbus A350-900s, which will soon be deployed on services to London Heathrow and even the US. Air India's CEO - Campbell Wilson, told Simple Flying the following during a media roundtable at the Farnborough Airshow: "Our network has expanded a lot in most of the geographies we serve. In fact, I think in all of the geographies. In the UK, we've increased the number of flights by 75% since privatization. - the amount of capacity by double. The A350 will be doing double daily, Delhi-London Heathrow, in September. In the US, we've added a lot of capacity into San Francisco. We inaugurated Mumbai-San Francisco and Bangalore-San Francisco. We've added capacity into New York. We're increasing frequency in Toronto, and we're looking at potentially another couple of destinations in the reasonably near future in North America. We see a big opportunity."<br/>