Upbeat on the India aviation market growing at a hectic pace, aerospace major Boeing has predicted a huge potential for addition of new aircraft over the next 20 years.
Dinesh A Keskar, Senior Vice-President, Sales Asia Pacific, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said the Indian domestic aviation market has been growing at about 20 per cent over the past three years and given the general economic outlook and potential for the aviation sector, this is set to get much bigger.
“This growth is as against global aviation sector growth of about 7.3 per cent. The country's domestic traffic has touched 116.7 million in 2017, that is about 10 million passengers are flying every month. If the country's size and population and its potential is taken into account, this market will get bigger,” he said.
Over the next 20 years, while the global aviation would require 41,030 planes valued at $6.1 trillion, India would require 2,100 new airplanes with combined value of about $290 billion, he said.
“However, the rise in fuel cost by over 81 per cent since early 2016 and dollar-rupee fluctuation, have been matters of concern,” he said.
“We are bullish on the aviation market. The market dynamics of purchase of aircraft is changing. Over the next 20 years, Asia- Pacific will be a major market for aircraft, where India will be one of the biggest purchasers,” he said.
Making a detailed presentation on the aviation sector, Keskar said “India will become the third largest economy by 2037 with only the US and China ahead of it, outpacing Japan. As we see the economy getting buoyant and growing at a faster pace, the aviation sector will play a major role.”
While some have raised the question about the impact of growth of low cost carriers and regional connectivity with smaller aircraft, “We believe it would do good for the wide-bodied aircraft manufacturer like Boeing. Both would continue to grow.”