Boeing is forecasting that India will require 2,300 new aircraft over the next 20 years, raising the figure from last year's forecast of 2,100 aircraft, and 2016's 1,850 aircraft.
The airframer says the 2,300 aircraft set to be delivered by 2037 will have a market value of $320 billion. Of these aircraft, 1,940 are narrowbodies and 350 widebodies. Only 10 regional jets, with 90 or fewer seats, will be required in the Indian market.
2017's forecast accounted for 1,780 narrowbodies, 310 widebodies, and 10 regional jets.
The airframer pointed to an "unprecedented domestic passenger traffic, and rapidly expanding low-cost carriers", as the driving need for more jets in India. In 2018, more than 10 million passengers travelled within India on average each month.
"To meet this increased domestic air traffic growth, we see the vast majority of available airplane seats coming from LCCs," says Dinesh Keskar, Boeing Commercial Airplanes' senior vice-president of sales for Asia-Pacific and India.
According to its Commercial Market Outlook, renamed from Current Market Outlook, India's commercial aviation industry has achieved 51 consecutive months of double digit growth.
It also expects more than 5% of the world's fleet to be operating in India by 2037, thus driving the need for commercial services such as flight training, engineering and maintenance, as well as digital analytics.
For the entire South Asia region, which includes India, Boeing is forecasting a commercial services market valued at $430 billion over the next 20 years.
"The Indian economy is projected to grow by nearly 350 percent over the next two decades to become the third largest economy in the world," adds Keskar.
"This will continue to drive the growth of India's middle class and its propensity to travel both domestically and internationally, resulting in the need for more new fuel-efficient short- and long-haul airplanes."
Source: Cirium Dashboard
