Boeing offer to buy back Air India planes

Boeing vice president of sales, Dinesh Keskar, has said that the Boeing Company has offered to buy back five of state-owned Air India's old 747 planes.

This offer is to encourage the airline to buy 35 of its new aircraft.

Previously, Boeing arranged a similar deal with state-run Alliance Air, and bought back old planes in exchange for purchases of new ones.

Air India plans to buy 18 short-range and 17 medium-range aircraft.

In July, the airline's board had not reached a decision to finalise the order for the 18 short-range aircraft, for which both Boeing and Airbus Industries had submitted bids.

Keskar also said that Boeing estimates India will require 317 airplanes by 2022, worth US$25bn (€23bn).

The board of the state-run Indian Airlines, a mostly domestic carrier, separately recommended the purchase of 43 Airbus aircraft.

This is a US$2.2bn (€2bn) deal, and has yet to be approved by the Indian cabinet.