Air India Weighs More Widebody Orders as Losses Double to $2.5 Billion

Air India posted a combined net loss of roughly 222.4 billion rupees ($2.5 billion) for the financial year ending March 2026 — more than double the previous year — and its new chief executive is responding with more aircraft, not fewer.

Tewolde Gebremariam, speaking at the Aviation India and South Asia Summit in New Delhi on November 3, 2026, said Air India is in talks with Boeing and Airbus for additional widebody orders and expects the carrier to become profitable "very soon." He declined to say how many aircraft the airline might purchase.

"We want more wide-body aircraft," Gebremariam said.

The remark came five weeks after he took over as CEO in October 2026, succeeding Campbell Wilson, who led the airline through the first phase of its post-privatization transformation.

What does the new order sit on top of?

The prospective purchase would add to existing commitments for 600 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus, of which 80 are widebodies:

• 50 Airbus A350s
• 20 Boeing 787 Dreamliners
• 10 Boeing 777Xs

Only about 10 of the 80 widebodies have been delivered. Air India currently operates 61 widebody aircraft. That gap between orders and deliveries frames the practical question: what does another order change for a carrier still absorbing its last one?

Gebremariam did not address it. He framed the expansion as market-share recovery, saying Air India aims to win back international traffic from foreign competitors and draw more connecting passengers through its Indian hubs.

"Air India has been punching below its weight and that will change," he said.

What about Pakistan's airspace closure?

The network review is being driven partly by constraint. Pakistan's airspace restrictions continue to complicate long-haul operations, particularly Delhi departures to Europe and North America. Gebremariam said Air India is considering shifting more of those services to Mumbai, where flights are less affected by the restrictions.

The airline is also evaluating Bengaluru as a third major hub alongside Delhi and Mumbai. No timeline was given for either move.

Can the numbers support the growth?

The loss figure is the counterweight to every promise made in New Delhi. Air India and subsidiary Air India Express lost approximately 222.4 billion rupees in the year to March 2026, against roughly half that a year earlier, as turnaround costs mounted.

Gebremariam identified high operating costs as a major concern and said the airline is working to bring them closer to industry averages. He did not specify which cost lines — fuel, labor, maintenance or financing — would deliver the reduction, nor by when.

He said he was more impatient for profitability than his shareholders. Tata Group holds approximately 75% of Air India; Singapore Airlines holds the remaining 25%. Both, he said, are taking a longer-term view of the airline's development. That divergence matters. Shareholders with patience can absorb a doubling loss; a CEO who promises profit "very soon" sets a clock the balance sheet does not yet support.

A new CEO with a hub-building record

Gebremariam's appointment carries its own signal. He previously spent more than a decade leading Ethiopian Airlines, where he oversaw the carrier's expansion into Africa's largest airline and developed Addis Ababa into a major international connecting hub.

That record maps directly onto the Air India pitch: sixth-freedom traffic through a home hub, long-haul growth, widebody lift. Whether the Indian market, with its cost base and airspace constraints, replicates the Ethiopian model remains untested.

Air India has been undergoing a multibillion-dollar transformation since returning to Tata Group ownership in January 2022. The program includes new aircraft, upgraded cabins, an expanded international network and customer-service improvements. Gebremariam's contribution will be measured in delivery rates, cost per seat and the pace at which the Mumbai and Bengaluru hub decisions harden into schedules.

The widebody talks with Boeing and Airbus will test whether manufacturers can offer slots — and whether Air India's balance sheet can carry them — before its existing 600-aircraft backlog has even begun to thin.