Portugal Colonial - Indian airline IndiGo orders 30 Airbus A350 widebody planes

"We are placing a firm order for 30 Airbus A350-900s," said Pieter Elbers, the CEO of IndiGo, a company founded in 2006 and already behind the largest contract by volume in the history of civil aviation -- 500 Airbus single-aisle aircraft by 2023.

The Indian low-cost carrier, the country's biggest by market share, is positioning itself as a significant player in the long-haul market.

"This strategic move will enable IndiGo to spread its wings further and expand its long-haul international network", the company said in a statement.

"This is yet another step in defining the airline's long-term plans of international expansion".

The A350 planes, with ranges of up to 15,000 kilometres (9,300 miles), will allow it to further expand its network.

Overall, IndiGo has placed orders for around 1,000 aircraft from the A320 family, Airbus's most successful model and rival of the Boeing 737 MAX, which has endured multiple setbacks after a series of safety scares.

Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which began its annual industry conference in New Delhi on Sunday, said "the development of India's air connectivity in recent years has been nothing short of phenomenal".

Indian domestic air growth is "running at over 10 percent" per year, Walsh said, ahead of the conference.

The growth of its economy has made India and its 1.4 billion people the world's fourth-largest air market -- domestic and international -- with IATA projecting it will become the third biggest within the decade.

Last year, India's domestic air passenger traffic reached a "historic milestone, surpassing 500,000 passengers in a single day", according to India's Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The ministry boasts of a sector "experiencing a meteoric rise".

Railways remain hugely popular but travelling by trains crisscrossing a country about three-quarters the area of the European Union is often slow and chaotic.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is slated to address IATA delegates on Monday, has made the development of the air sector a priority since coming to power in 2014.

India has doubled its number of airports in the past decade to 157, with plans to have as many as 400 by 2047.

C.Amaral--PC