Air India Wants a Larger Widebody Order Under New CEO Tewolde Gebremariam, Explained

Air India wants more widebody aircraft, and the new chief executive said so in public without putting a number on it. Tewolde Gebremariam told an industry summit in New Delhi on 3 November 2026 that the network and the strategy need a larger widebody order. He did not say how many extra jets. The Hindu, The Indian Express and AeroTime all carried the remarks from that appearance.

It was his first public outing in the job. The Hindu said this was his first public appearance since he took charge last month. AeroTime said he has been CEO since October 2026, succeeding Campbell Wilson. The Indian Express described Wilson as Air India's first post-privatisation chief executive. The Hindu called the event the Aviation India Summit 2026. AeroTime called it the Aviation India and South Asia Summit.

The stakes are concrete for Indian flyers and for the Tata Group. Widebodies are the aircraft that fly India to Europe, North America, East Asia and Australia. Gebremariam also tied the fleet talk to a harder near-term job: cut costs and reach profitability. The loss figures the papers printed are large, and they do not use the same wording. The orderbook total is also reported two ways. Both gaps are set out below, with the outlet attached to each number.

The 60-second version

• The line: "We want to increase our widebody order. Our network and strategy demand more widebodies." That is The Hindu's quote of Gebremariam. The Indian Express has him saying Air India is talking to Airbus and Boeing, and that the network and strategy demand more wide-bodies. No extra quantity was given.
• Already signed: 80 widebodies on order: 50 A350s, 20 787s and 10 777Xs (The Hindu and AeroTime). About 10 of the 80 have been delivered. The operational widebody fleet is 61 (The Indian Express and AeroTime).
• The bigger orderbook: The Hindu says those 80 sit inside two orders totalling 570 aircraft, placed in 2023 and 2024. The Indian Express and AeroTime say the order size was expanded to 600, including the 80 widebodies. The Indian Express says the earlier order was 470.
• Why more long-haul jets: Regain international market share, including from Gulf carriers (The Hindu), and carry more people who connect from one foreign city to another through India (The Indian Express). The Hindu quoted him saying more growth may come from full-service widebody long haul.
• Hubs, as he described them: More Europe and North America flying from Mumbai. Delhi growth toward Southeast Asia, East Asia and Australia. Bengaluru under evaluation as a third hub.
• Profit and cash: "Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency," and he is "impatient to see profitability as soon as possible" (The Hindu). The Indian Express reported a consolidated loss of over Rs 22,000 crore in 2025-26, more than double the year before, and reported, as something it learnt, that the airline is seeking about $1.5 billion from Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines. AeroTime reported a combined Air India and Air India Express net loss of about 222.4 billion rupees ($2.5 billion) for the year ending March 2026.

What he said, and what he did not

Gebremariam did not announce a signed top-up. He announced an intention, and he said talks are on.

The Hindu, in a report by Jagriti Chandra published on 3 November 2026 and updated at about 7:35 pm IST, quoted him this way: "We want to increase our widebody order. Our network and strategy demand more widebodies." The paper said he did not specify how many additional widebodies the airline is seeking.

The Indian Express, in a report by Sukalp Sharma updated at 4:29 pm IST the same day, quoted him from the Airbus and Boeing conversations: "We're talking to them (Airbus and Boeing). We want to increase our order of wide-bodies. Our network, our strategy demands more." The paper said he did not comment on how many additional wide-body jets Air India wants. It added that the airline and its shareholders, Tata and Singapore Airlines, are taking a long-term view and are confident of building Air India into a large world-class airline.

AeroTime, in a 3 November 2026 report by Stephen Pope, quoted a shorter line, "We want more wide-body aircraft," and said he confirmed discussions with both manufacturers and declined to say how many aircraft the airline might purchase.

Read together, the three versions agree on the direction and on the missing number. They do not agree on a single phrasing, so the quotes above are kept with the paper that printed them.

On where growth should sit, The Hindu said he appeared to favour the full-service airline over budget arm Air India Express. The quote The Hindu used is "more growth may come from full service carrier widebody long haul". That is a tilt in the growth story. It is not, in these reports, a decision to stop integrating the two airlines on costs. The cost section below is the other half of what he said.

What is already on order

The one fleet figure all three outlets share is the widebody slice: 80 aircraft already on order.

Outlet	Widebodies	How the wider order is described
The Hindu	80: 50 A350s, 20 787s, 10 777Xs	Part of two orders for 570 aircraft, placed in 2023 and 2024, soon after privatisation
The Indian Express	80 wide-body jets	First an order for 470, a year after the return to the Tata fold, then expanded to 600, including the 80 wide-bodies
AeroTime	80: 50 A350s, 20 787s, 10 777Xs	Existing commitments for 600 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus, including the 80 widebodies

The Hindu's story prints 570. The Indian Express and AeroTime print 600. The two totals are left as each outlet reported them. Any later company disclosure will have to say whether a top-up sits on 570, on 600, or replaces part of either book.

Delivery is a separate count, and only two of the papers give it. The Indian Express and AeroTime both say about 10 of the 80 widebodies on order have been delivered so far, and that Air India has an operational widebody fleet of 61. The 61 is the fleet that flies today. It is not the same thing as "10 new jets have arrived." The papers do not break the 61 down by type in these stories.

AeroTime also gives the ownership split behind the orderbook: Tata Group about 75 percent, Singapore Airlines the remaining 25 percent. The Indian Express names both as shareholders without that percentage in this piece.

Why widebodies, and why the full-service arm

The Indian Express describes wide-body jets as the aircraft usually used on long-haul flights. The jets named in the widebody order are the A350s, 787s and 777Xs. Gebremariam's case, as the papers report it, is that Air India needs more of them to win back international passengers and to carry people connecting through India.

The Hindu said the aim behind widebody growth is to regain market share from competitors, including Gulf carriers.

The Indian Express put three commercial targets next to the extra jets: boost international operations, claw back international market share from overseas carriers, and increase international-to-international connecting passengers. Those are travellers who fly into an Indian airport and connect onward to another country. The Indian Express said Indian airports are meant to compete with hubs such as Dubai, Doha, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, and that West Asian and Southeast Asian hubs have been connecting points for a substantial number of Indians on long-haul flights. The effort that paper described is to claw that share back with more direct long-haul flights. Gebremariam told The Indian Express: "Right now, our immediate focus is to regain (international) market share from the competition. We will work very hard to regain that market." The paper said he called the Indian diaspora, on its own, a significant market segment.

He also told The Indian Express that India can develop not one but multiple large hub airports, for passengers flying to and from India and for passengers flying beyond it. AeroTime reported the same international market-share aim and the same push for connecting traffic through Indian hubs.

The "punching below its weight" line is his, not a commentator's gloss. AeroTime quoted him: "Air India has been punching below its weight and that will change." The Indian Express reported the same judgment, that this will change in time.

The full-service emphasis matters because Air India and Air India Express are not the same product. The Hindu's reading of his "full service carrier widebody long haul" line is that more of the growth he is describing sits with Air India, not with the budget airline. The Indian Express, on the cost side, says he still wants deeper integration and operational synergy between the two. Growth weighted to long-haul full service, and a shared cost base with Express, are both in the reporting. Neither paper says Express stops growing.

How Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru fit

He described the extra widebodies and a rebalanced network together. The Indian Express said airspace closures are the reason for that rebalance.

The Indian Express reported that Pakistani airspace is closed and that there are airspace disruptions in the Gulf because of the West Asia war. Delhi is the primary hub, and it is the one hit by airspace issues to the west of India. Gebremariam's rebalance, as that paper reported it:

• A larger concentration of Europe and North America flights from Mumbai, because routes from Mumbai are not as significantly affected.
• Growth from Delhi toward geographies the paper described as unaffected: Southeast Asia, East Asia and Australia.
• Bengaluru as a third hub, which he said the airline is looking at.

AeroTime reported the same constraint in slightly narrower language: Pakistan's airspace restrictions are complicating long-haul flights, particularly departures from Delhi to Europe and North America. It said he is considering moving more of those services to Mumbai, where flights are less affected, and evaluating Bengaluru as a third major hub alongside Delhi and Mumbai.

Nothing in these three stories is a new published schedule. "Looking to", "considering" and "evaluating" are the verbs the papers use. For a passenger, that means a Delhi to Europe or Delhi to North America trip can still be the one most exposed to the detour, while any Mumbai shift is a plan the CEO has described, not a date on the booking page.

Losses, the cost push, and the reported capital ask

The long-haul ambition sits on a loss-making airline, and Gebremariam talked about that directly.

The Hindu quoted his cost line as "Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency," and said he was "impatient to see profitability as soon as possible."

The Indian Express said he is more impatient to see a profitable Air India than the shareholders are, and that he hopes profitability will come "very soon" through revenue growth and better cost efficiency. It reported that since taking charge he has set up a cross-functional cost-savings team, announced some cost-optimisation measures, and is pushing deeper integration with Air India Express to curb widening losses. AeroTime said he has identified high operating costs as a major concern, wants costs closer to industry averages, and is more impatient for profit than Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, which are taking a longer-term approach. AeroTime also said he expects the airline to become profitable "very soon." None of the three reports gives a financial year for that.

The loss itself is reported in two wordings. They should be read separately.

The Indian Express said Air India posted a consolidated loss of over Rs 22,000 crore in 2025-26, more than double the previous financial year. AeroTime said Air India and subsidiary Air India Express reported a combined net loss of approximately 222.4 billion rupees ($2.5 billion) for the financial year ending March 2026, also more than double the previous year. In India's fiscal calendar, 2025-26 is the year that ends in March 2026. The papers still do not use the same company scope: one says a consolidated Air India loss, the other a combined Air India and Air India Express net loss. This piece does not merge them into one official number.

On fresh capital, The Indian Express reported that Air India is seeking about $1.5 billion from Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, and it marked the information "it is learnt." That attribution is the paper's, and the story does not quote Gebremariam on the sum or cite a filing. AeroTime puts the same shareholder pair at about 75 percent Tata Group and 25 percent Singapore Airlines. The $1.5 billion figure stands as reported until Tata Sons, Singapore Airlines or Air India confirms it.

Gebremariam has run a hub-and-long-haul rebuild before. The Indian Express said that earlier in his career he oversaw Ethiopian Airlines' transformation into a global airline and the largest carrier in Africa, and the rise of Addis Ababa as an aviation hub. AeroTime said he spent more than a decade leading Ethiopian Airlines on that expansion. At Air India, AeroTime said, Campbell Wilson led the initial stages of the transformation after the return to Tata Group ownership in January 2022, covering new aircraft, upgraded cabins, a larger international network and customer-service work. Gebremariam is describing the next layer: more widebodies, a shifted hub map, and a faster push for profit than the long-term view he said the shareholders are taking.

What to watch next

1. A number, or a signed top-up. Talks with Airbus and Boeing are what he confirmed. The missing fact is how many widebodies, and whether any new order is added to the 570 figure The Hindu uses or the 600 figure The Indian Express and AeroTime use.
2. Whether the hub talk becomes a timetable. That means a larger set of Europe and North America flights actually scheduled from Mumbai, Delhi capacity aimed at Southeast Asia, East Asia and Australia, and a decision on Bengaluru as a third hub. Pakistani airspace and Gulf disruptions are the constraints The Indian Express named.
3. What the cost team changes. He has a cross-functional cost-savings team and wants deeper integration with Air India Express. The reports do not list the line items those cuts cover.
4. The capital raise. The roughly $1.5 billion from Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines is The Indian Express's "it is learnt" report. Confirmation from the airline or either shareholder would put that figure on the record in their own words.
5. A profitability year. "As soon as possible" and "very soon" are his phrases, via The Hindu, The Indian Express and AeroTime. No date is attached.

Gebremariam has put a larger widebody order, a three-city hub shift and a faster profit push on the record. The order size, the schedule change and the shareholder cheque are still ahead of him.

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This explainer is for information only. It is not investment, booking or financial advice. Quotes and the 80-jet split of 50 A350s, 20 787s and 10 777Xs, the 570-aircraft orderbook, the Gulf-carrier market-share aim, the full-service growth line, and the "efficiency" and "impatient" lines are from The Hindu (Jagriti Chandra, published 3 November 2026, updated about 7:35 pm IST). The Airbus and Boeing talks, the 470-then-600 orderbook, about 10 deliveries, the operational fleet of 61, the diaspora and connecting-traffic strategy, the Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru hub comments, the cost-savings team, the Air India Express integration, the consolidated loss of over Rs 22,000 crore in 2025-26, the "it is learnt" seek of about $1.5 billion, and the Ethiopian Airlines background are from The Indian Express (Sukalp Sharma, updated 3 November 2026, 4:29 pm IST). The summit name Aviation India and South Asia Summit, the 600-aircraft commitments, the same 80-jet split, the same delivery and fleet counts, the combined net loss of about 222.4 billion rupees ($2.5 billion) for the year ending March 2026, the about 75 percent Tata and 25 percent Singapore Airlines split, the October 2026 start, and the succession from Campbell Wilson are from AeroTime (Stephen Pope, 3 November 2026). Where those papers use different totals, both are reported and neither is adjusted.