Air India Express expects to induct 20-24 new aircraft into its fleet in 2026, Managing Director Aloke Singh said on Tuesday.
The expansion, part of Tata Group’s ongoing transformation of the airline, will further strengthen Air India Express’s growing presence in the domestic market, the company said.
AI Express currently operates a fleet of 110 aircraft comprising Airbus A320/A321s and Boeing 737s, including the 737 MAX.
Singh said the pace of inductions next year will depend on the supply chain and progress at Boeing’s manufacturing facility. “Subject to the supply chain, and how the production line progresses, we are looking at about 20-24 aircraft in the next calendar year,” he said.
Over the past 20 months, the carrier has been adding 3-3.5 aircraft a month, according to Singh. He added that the carrier expects the entire 737 order placed with Boeing to be delivered by 2030.
Singh was speaking at an event to introduce the new interiors and hot meals launched by AI Express.
The fresh induction will build on the 50 white-tail Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and 16 A320/A321 planes that joined the fleet over the past two years. All the aircraft have been painted in AI Express’s refreshed livery, introduced in October 2023, featuring regionally inspired tail designs and upgraded interiors.
According to Singh, AI Express is now sharpening its domestic focus. “About two years ago, as much as 60% of the network was short-haul international and 40% domestic. Today, it is about 50-50. We have been growing international short-haul as well, but we have been growing faster in the domestic Indian market,” he said.
Over the next few years, the airline intends to continue this trajectory. “The domestic network will be growing faster than the short-haul international network. On the domestic network, the strategy broadly is depth before spread,” Singh said, adding that the airline aims for a meaningful presence on city-pairs and roughly a third of the market share.
Nearly 80% of AI Express’s domestic capacity currently connects metros to tier 2 and 3 cities — the largest and fastest-growing segment of the Indian aviation market.
“Air India focuses on metro-to-metro routes and those with a greater composition of business traffic, and of course, long-haul international. Air India Express focuses on the leisure markets, the visiting friends and relatives market, the SME market, and the value-conscious traveller,” Singh said.
Under its winter 2025 schedule, AI Express will operate more than 2,700 weekly domestic flights and 780 short-haul international ones, a 25% expansion over last year. With new routes, including Delhi-Port Blair, Bengaluru-Udaipur and Bengaluru-Bangkok, the carrier aims to position itself as the country’s leading value carrier built on comfort, connectivity and scale.