Air India is delaying its decision to purchase more Boeing aircraft until the manufacturer resolves its backlog, the airline’s CEO Campbell Wilson told Reuters. 

“We don’t want to commit to anything until we have confidence of when it’s going to come,” Wilson explained in an interview with Reuters in London. “And likewise, they [Boeing] don’t want to offer something until they have confidence of when it’s going to come.” 

He said that Air India’s aircraft order will take longer to fulfill than originally planned, but that he remained optimistic about the airline’s turnaround plan in the coming years. 

“We expect to get them, but do we expect to get them according to timeline? No, we don’t. And I think that every airline would tell you the same thing,” he told Reuters, adding that Air India has been in “constant contact” with the manufacturer. 

The Tata Group-owned airline has acknowledged its struggles from not having enough investment while being state-owned. This has led to a big five-years restructuring plan called the Vihaan.AI program, which the airline calls its “transformation roadmap”. 

In December 2024, Air India revealed major updates to its international route network as part of this plan. These changes will allow Air India to use its best aircraft for important destinations in Southeast Asia and Europe, in addition to the upgraded A350 and B777 already operating on several routes to the US and UK.  

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