Airbus expects Indian carriers to make up 6% of its order book in next 20 years

Aviation multinational Airbus on March 24 said it expects Indian carriers to order 2,210 jetliners over the next 20 years, making up about 6 percent of its projected order book.

The Indian airlines are expected to order for 1,770 small and 440 medium and large aircraft, Head of Airline Marketing for India and South Asia at Airbus, Brent McBratney, said at Wings India 2022 in Hyderabad.

He said India needs 34,000 additional pilots and 45,000 technicians by 2040. Passenger traffic in India is expected to grow at 6.2 percent in the next two decades, he told reporters.

Airbus expects the growth of low-cost carriers to spur the demand for narrow-body planes in India in the coming years and expects Indian airlines to tap into the long haul wide-body market as well in the coming few years.

Airbus had in November said it expects a market of 39,020 aircraft deliveries over the next 20 years, fractionally lower than the 39,213 it had forecast two years ago.

Before COVID-19 hit the business of aviation, the Indian market was growing consistently at double digits with traffic more than doubling from around 61 million in 2013-14 to around 137 million in 2019-20, registering an annual growth of over 14 percent.

Airbus also said that India has emerged as the fastest growing aviation market in the last decade for G20 countries and it expects the Indian market to outgrow in the next few years.

Airbus is pitching the A350 to Air India as the airline looks to revamp of its fleet after the change of ownership from the government to Tatas.

American aerospace maker Pratt & Whitney also said it will open a global supply chain centre in Bengaluru, the company's Vice-President, Mark Cryan, said at a press conference at the Wings India today.

The engine maker faced a lot of complaints with regards to inflight shut down or IFSD and that led to IndiGo deciding against the engine for its future deliveries.

The company said that its gear turbo fan (GTF) engines are now working fine in the country and the issues have been addressed. GTF engines power the Airbus 320 (neos) operated by IndiGo and GoFirst.

“We have worked with the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) and airlines and our engine powered aircraft is working fine in India today,” Cryan said.