• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Hyderabad, Oct. 16 Unfazed by current economic slowdown and its likely impact on the aviation sector, aircraft maker Boeing Company has said the demand for new ones would continue in the long term and has scaled up overall sales projections.

The Senior Vice-President, Sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Dr Dinesh A. Keskar, said about 29,400 new aircraft will be required over the next 20 years, of which 12,500 will be for replacement of current ones, and 16,900 new ones inducted to meet growth. The overall value of these planes is estimated at about $3.2 trillion.

Addressing a press conference here at the India Aviation 2008, Dr Keskar said markets such as China and India will be amongst major drivers for this growth as these economies are likely to grow at much faster pace than the global GDP.

He said air travel will increase in the south west Asia and the current orders under execution for India estimated at about $25 billion bears testimony to this growth. In fact, there have been no requests for any delay from any airliner as of now, he said.

Providing insights into the aviation sector, Dr Keskar said the future delivery forecast estimated at 911 planes between 2007 and 2026 worth about $86 billion has been revised upwards to 1,001 airplanes with overall estimated value of $105 billion.

Dr Keskar said there could be some temporary blips but then the order book position for Boeing is quite robust. In fact, if one airliner prefers to differ, another is ready to take that order. However, there have been no instances of deferment in India.

Mentioning about growing fuel costs and other escalations, Dr Keskar said the domestic growth is slowing. The increasing fuel surcharge is significantly impacting India’s domestic traffic. Citing couple of examples, he said a fair estimate of breakeven fare between say Delhi and Mumbai and Mumbai and Hyderabad sectors shows that there is potential for increase in fares.

More Stories on : Outlook | Airlines

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line