We are in a better shape than competition: Dinesh Keskar

Interview with Senior vice-president (sales) for Asia Pacific & India, Boeing

India's low-cost domestic airline IndiGo has opted to purchase its aircraft from Airbus, but its rival Boeing's Senior Vice-President (Sales) for Asia Pacific and India Dinesh Keskar is upbeat about the India market. In an interview with Arindam Majumder, he said Boeing was in a better shape than the competition. Edited excerpts:

The aviation policy is likely to be out soon. It might allow more planes to fly to international destinations. How do you think this would affect Boeing?

Boeing is a renowned manufacturer and focuses on bringing the best products to the market. We have worked in India for 75 years. We don't participate in policy making, but we understand the policies and work with them. So, 85 per cent of the domestic market uses our 737-type aircraft. We have a great airplane and have some new ones coming up as well. We will keep talking to the airlines and give our products to them.

Most of the market is focused on the domestic routes. In this situation, if the market leader (IndiGo) starts preferring your rival manufacturer does that affect you?

Not at all. If you count the number of airplanes today with Air India, Jet and SpiceJet we have more airplanes in operation than IndiGo and GoAir combined. And now, there is Vistara and Air Asia.

It so happens that in wide-body market, most airlines prefer our products. In a narrow-body market we are almost equal to Airbus. We are in a much better shape in India than our competition.

What effect would the decision on the "5/20" rule have on your production?

India is expected to buy 1,740 planes for $240 billion till 2034 - depending on a number of macroeconomic factors.

The value of those aircraft will remain the same with, or without the policy. What will change is what will be spent besides the amount on aircraft. We cannot predict whether or not it will be five airlines or 10 airlines flying those aircraft. In 1990, we had two airlines.

Vistara has also opted for Airbus. Do you see that as a drawback?

We didn't lose Vistara to Airbus. What happened is that SilkAir, which is owned by Singapore Airlines, discarded all their Airbus products and took Boeing. So clearly, we had the right airplanes. What we didn't have was the supply for Vistara. Whereas, Airbus can produce their planes in six months, we can't. Our products are sold out, it takes us more time.

What are you doing to decrease the delivery time?

We are increasing our production. We are going to produce 57 planes a month now. But, we also don't want to produce too much and create overcapacity because if the market goes down, it will be a problem.

Several of our airplanes are sold to a leasing company. We advise the airlines to start off with those airplanes and then take the new airplanes directly from us.