Boeing forecasts maximum purchases from India

World’s leading aerospace company is looking at India as its biggest buyer from the South-Asian market.

One of the leading aerospace companies in the world, Boeing has said that it is expecting maximum business from India over the next 20 years, with airlines in Indian ordering up to 2,100 new aircraft worth USD 290 billion. This is the highest ever forecast by the company for India, which is now Asia’s third largest economy and the one with rapidly increasing air traffic.

With domestic passenger traffic growing at more than 20 pc a year over the last few years, India has become one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world.

“The increasing number of passengers combined with a strong exchange rate, low fuel prices and high load factor bodes well for India’s aviation market, especially for the low-cost carriers,” said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president, Asia-Pacific and India sales at Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Boeing, also the world’s biggest maker of jetliners, said that it is expecting India to dominate the passenger growth from South Asia, which is eight pc compared to the world average of about 4.7 pc.

Boeing could increase the projection next year depending on how India’s regional connectivity scheme pans out, Dinesh Keskar added.

Over the last year India has reformulated its aviation rules, liberalising norms for domestic carriers to fly abroad, and also by boosting regional connectivity within the nation; capped airfares; and opening up of  new airports, India has witnessed substantial progress in the aviation sector.

Forecasting the type of planes India could be investing in, Boeing said it was looking at the sale of single-aisle planes, such as the next generation 737 and 737 Max .

The US plane maker already dominates the wide-body aeroplane market in India, while the small planes, which Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) usually prefer, are brought from competitor Airbus SE. LCCs account for 60 pc of flights in the country.

Now with the 737 MAX 10 single-aisle jet, which Boeing launched at the Paris Air Show in June, it is looking at filling the gap that remains after the LCCs have taken off.  Of the demand of 41,030 aircraft that Boeing is expecting from world over, it has set aside five pc of the share from the Indian market, giving clear stats on how it is seeing the market.