Dinesh Keskar, senior vice-president of Asia-Pacific and India Sales for Boeing, said the aviation market was getting bigger in Asia-Pacific and around 37 per cent of sales in future were expected from this region.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he said that world wide 33,500 new aircraft would be required in the next 20 years at a cost of $ 4 trillion. Stating that Boeing was quite bullish on India, he said the future was ‘unbelievably good’. India’s passenger traffic growth at eight per cent was the fastest in the world and the same trend was expected to continue in the foreseeable future.
He said that only the surface of the aviation market was scratched in India and although the domestic growth had been phenomenal, it was not in profits. He said that due to massive losses, carriers in the country would have difficulty in sustaining unless the air fares were hiked by 15 per cent.
According to Boeing’s current market outlook, the Indian aviation market would require 1,320 commercial jets, valued at $ 150 billion over the next two decades.
Mr. Keskar said that Boeing was currently having an order book of over 100 aircraft from Indian carriers which include 787 Dreamliners for Air India (27) and Jet Airways (10). SpiceJet is the other airline expecting to take delivery of Boeing aircraft.
Expressing his delight at 787 Dreamliner being showcased at the India Aviation Show 2012, Mr. Keskar said that Boeing was expected to deliver shortly and declined to comment on the compensation sought by Air India for the delay.
Giving an overview of the various features of Dreamliner, he said that it would fundamentally change how Air India would operate in the market. Air India pilots would soon undergo training on Dreamliner.
The MRO facility being set up by Boeing at Nagpur would be operational by November 2012.
(EOM)
