Indian airlines will need 1,740 planes in 20 years: Boeing

Says 84% of the new aircrafts required would be single-aisle and 15% would be wide-body aircrafts

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing on Wednesday said India would require 1,740 new airplanes, in the next 20 years, revising an earlier forecast.

“India will become the third largest aviation market in the world by 2034 – bigger than Japan, Germany and Brazil. India will need 1,740 new airplanes worth $240 billion in the next 20 years, which will be 4.6 per cent of the world demand,” said Dinesh Keskar, its senior vice-president for the Asia-Pacific and India sales, here at a press conference.

The company issued its yearly market outlook for India. Boeing said 84 per cent of the new aircraft needed would be single-aisle and 15 per cent would be wide-body. The single-aisle ones would have 90-230 seats and wide-body ones 200-300 seats each. It said the largest demand in India would be for airplanes such as the next-generation 737 and new 737 MAX.



“The number of low-cost carriers is projected to grow to more than 30 per cent of the total Indian market,” the company said.

Keskar said airlines were going to lease most of these new airplanes, not buying, primarily because of poor finances. Last year, the aircraft manufacturer had forecast that India would require 1,600 new airplanes worth $205 bn in the coming 20 years.Globally, Boeing projected a demand for 38,050 new airplanes in the coming 20 years.