"This is not the time when airlines would talk about booking new orders. If we were talking about an order size of 60 earlier, it would be between 25-30 for the next ten years from 2012," said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president (sales), Boeing.

Keskar also said that airlines in India would have to cut existing capacity by at least 10-12 per cent to tide over the current crisis.

"Airlines in the US are cutting capacity by 10 per cent approximately. In India, they will have to sooner or later cut at least 10-12 per cent capacity," he said.

However, Keskar also pointed out that there has been no cancellation or deferring of orders by domestic carriers until now, despite their plea that there is need to trim capacity.

"We are not getting any indications of deferment of deliveries from our buyers," Keskar said.

Boeing assisted low-cost carrier SpiceJet to sub-lease its deliveries to other buyers, thereby insulating itself from a possible deferment of five aircraft deliveries that the airline was scheduled to get over five months beginning this month. Boeing has an order book of 161 aircraft between Jet Airways, Air India and SpiceJet with deliveries scheduled till 2012.

Another aircraft manufacturer Airbus was non-committal and said, "When customers refine their fleet renewal plans, we work with them and adapt."

Keskar points out a development which could emerge from the current crisis. He says it will bring about a business-model differentiation.

"There was an artificial stimulation of demand, which was the result of irrational pricing by the airlines. Now, there will be an actual business model differentiation between a full-service carrier and no-frills carrier, as, it is being realised that there is no such thing as low-cost airlines," he said.