Air India has made one of the biggest aircraft orders in aviation history, purchasing 470 new planes from Boeing and Airbus.
The deal – which the company says will cost more than $US70 billion ($104 billion) – includes 400 short-haul planes, 70 long-haul planes, and 370 more planes on option.
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson says the new planes will not only revamp the airline – it also tells "the story of India".
"India is one of the top five economies in the world, and it's already one of the top five aviation markets in the world," he explains in an interview with the ABC's India Now!
"Though it has not been particularly well served by homegrown airlines, especially for long-haul international service.
"The country as a whole has less than 50 wide-body aircraft, which is a fraction compared to countries of a much smaller size.
"This order really represents the size and the untapped opportunity of the Indian aviation market."
Why is this such a big deal?
The Air India deal has attracted global attention from world leaders, including the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed his delight over the deal during a virtual meeting with the French President Emmanuel Macron:
"For this landmark agreement, I give my hearty congratulations to both Airbus and Air India, and I wish them well."
Dalbir Ahlawat, a senior lecturer in Indo-Pacific security and strategic affairs from Macquarie University, says the deal shows that the airline and the country have a serious focus on the Indo-Pacific region.
"It will be operating 400 planes in its own region," he says, "and only 70 planes in the far regions such as the United States, Canada, Africa and Europe."
"That gives [Air India] importance to its region, and it has geopolitical implications – and shows its geopolitical interests – in this region."
The deal also reflects India's hopes to become a powerful player on the global stage – as it overtakes China as the world's largest country.
"To emerge as a big power, it has to demonstrate its connectivity with the world," Dr Ahlawat says.
"India wants to not only connect but to develop interdependency – and this interdependency was witnessed when India placed an order for these 470 planes."
Andrew Charlton, managing director of Aviation Advocacy, says "there's no such thing as a non-geopolitical aircraft purchase."
"This purchase, in Europe and certainly in the United States, will change the dynamics of economies around the world," he says.
"It also affords the Indian government an opportunity to make sure that before the dotted line is signed on, all sorts of political positionings, alliances, understandings are cemented.
"I don't think there's been a trade mission to countries from China, Europe or the United States that doesn't include airline executives – and almost always includes the signing of a significant aircraft purchase."
Overcoming years of missed opportunities
Mr Charlton believes India should be one of the world's strongest aviation markets – but it has struggled.
For years, Air India has been losing customers to the Gulf carriers – like Emirates, Qatar and Etihad Airways – or other Asian carriers – like Singapore, Thai and Malaysian Airlines.
"The Indian government took a view that Air India was not competitive, and fiercely restricted how many flights other carriers could operate in India," Mr Charlton explains.
"That becomes a vicious circle – if you eliminate the competition, over time your airline stops being competitive."
Air India missed decades of opportunities in the three core aviation markets – tourism, business and VFR (visiting friends and relatives) – according to Mr Charlton.
"India has an enormous diaspora around the globe," he explains.
"Flights to India are harder to get, they're scarce and more expensive.
"Frankly, Air India has lost out 100 per cent to the other to the foreign carriers going into India, whether it's British Airways or Emirates."
It's also got a "less-than-stellar reputation" in terms of service, says Mr Charlton, who has worked in Aviation for more than three decades.
Dr Ahlawat agrees and adds that the airline, which was nationalised in the 1950s under a socialist leaning government, became bureaucratic over time and started registering substantial profit losses in 2007.
"It was overstaffed. On average, it had doubled the number of staff from the global average," he says, "it was too bureaucratised."
Can Air India become a world class airline?
In 2021, the previously Indian government-owned airline was privatised – and the new owner, Tata Group, a major industrial conglomerate, is eager to renew Air India's reputation.
"We are very much focused on restoring a place at the very pinnacle of world aviation," the airline's CEO Campbell Wilson says, "and this order [of 470 Boeing and Airbus planes] is clearly part and parcel of getting that."
According to Mr Wilson, the first of the new aircraft – narrow-body planes – will arrive in July, while the wide-body Airbus A350 will arrive in September.
"We're also in the process of leasing new aircraft as well as refurbishing our existing aircraft," Mr Wilson says.
"It's quite a significant expansion – we'll move from about 170 aircraft to about 240 by the middle of next year."
Mr Charlton agrees that the new fleet of planes gives the airline an opportunity to re-brand.
"A lot of those ageing aircraft will be phased out as these new aircraft come online," he says.
"It will take some time until they start getting new routes … but the new owners have committed a huge program.
"They've set up massive systems inside Air India to completely refresh and renew both the product and the reputation."
It's also believed that the ambitious deal will generate jobs, trade and tourism, and bring benefits in areas like travel safety and climate change.
"These new aircraft are significantly better in terms of how much fuel they use – or more to the point, how little fuel they use," Mr Charlton explains.
"In a perfect world, they would be steam powered or they wouldn't emit at all – but they emit 20-30 per cent less carbon than the aircraft they'll be replacing."
India Now! returns tonight, Friday April 21 at 8pm AEST on ABC News or catch up anytime on ABC iview.
