The Indian Air Force's (IAF) first C-295 transport aircraft left for India from Spain on Saturday.
"The aircraft is being flown by Group Captain PS Negi and will make stopovers in Malta, Egypt and Bahrain before reaching Vadodara in the next few days" IAF officials said.
Earlier, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari received the first of the 56 C295 transport aircraft two years after India sealed a Rs 21,935-crore deal with Airbus Defence and Space to procure the jets to replace its ageing Avro--748 fleet.
Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari, receiving the aircraft at the aerospace major's production facility in the southern Spanish city of Seville, described it as a "momentous day" for the IAF and India as 40 C-295 out of the total fleet will be manufactured in Vadodara.
"It is a momentous day for us, for the Indian Air Force in particular, and a nation as a whole to receive the first aircraft which marks the beginning of a new era, wherein we will be manufacturing 40 of these aircraft in India," he said.
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