Boeing Co. trimmed its outlook for India’s commercial aviation market despite traffic rebounding from Covid, saying the country will need 2,210 new planes over the next two decades, down from about 2,240 forecasts last year.
Single-aisle jets like the 737 Max will dominate, accounting for 1,983 — or 90% — of deliveries, with the remaining 227 sets to be widebodies, Boeing said in its latest outlook on the Indian market. Last March, it said India would need just over 2,000 narrowbodies and 240 widebodies over the following 20 years.
“More than 80% of new airplane deliveries to this market will be for growth, while 20% of new airplanes will be for replacement of aging jets,” Boeing’s Asia Pacific Commercial Marketing Managing Director Dave Schulte said in a statement Tuesday.
India’s aircraft departures are already back above pre-Covid levels, compared with about 77% for the global aviation market as a whole, Schulte told reporters at the Aero India airshow in the southern city of Bengaluru.
The country’s aviation sector still has enormous growth potential — even if just 1% of India’s 23 million daily train passengers upgrade to flights, the market will immediately double in size, Schulte said.
Indian carriers have ordered hundreds of aircraft worth billions of dollars in recent years to cater to a growing number of fliers. IndiGo, operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., is the world’s biggest customer for Airbus SE’s A320neo family of jets, while Tata Group’s Air India Ltd. is expected to make one of the largest orders in commercial aviation history as soon as this week.
Airbus said last year that India would need 2,210 new planes over the next two decades, the same as Boeing’s latest forecast.
Boeing also expects India’s cargo fleet to grow from some 15 planes today to about 80 by 2041.
China remains a far bigger market for Boeing — it expects the country will need 8,485 new aircraft through 2041.
