Indian airlines are seen as instrumental in the fast turnaround of global plane makers, with a total order of 1,100 aircraft already, with more expected to come.
The leading aircraft manufacturers – both Boeing and Airbus – were in serious trouble not so long ago, mired with a string of plane crashes and serious safety issues leading to order cancellations and hefty damage claims.
Air India‘s $80 billion plane order
Air India announced on Tuesday a total order for as many as 470 planes split between Boeing and Airbus.
The deal, estimated to value about $80 billion, is billed as the largest purchase in commercial aviation history.
The previous single largest jet order was a 460-plane deal by American Airlines in 2011.
For Boeing, the Air India order was the third biggest sale ever in dollar value and second in terms of the number of planes.
The Air India order also marked a major expansion in India’s airline industry, with more than 1,100 planes on order by various domestic carriers.
IndiGo, the country’s largest airline by market share has around 500 planes on order, while the newly launched Akasa Air placed an order for 72 Boeing narrow-body aircraft. Of the Akasa order, 16 planes have already been delivered.
Another private carrier Go First, earlier known as Go Air, has 72 planes on order, while Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, has a pending order for 17 Boeing planes.
This takes the total aircraft order by Indian carriers to about 1,115.
Currently, there are around 700 commercial aircraft in the country, with a majority of them being narrow-body or single-aisle planes.
Industry analysts said the country is one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world, and more orders for aircraft are expected in the coming months and years if the current market conditions prevail.
Boeing has projected that India will require around 2,210 new planes in the next two decades and also pegged annual domestic air traffic growth to be nearly 7 percent through 2041.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that the country’s growing aviation sector would need over 2,000 aircraft in the next 15 years.
According to projections by CAPA, an aviation consultancy, Indian carriers are likely to place orders for 1,500 to 1,700 planes in the next one to two years.
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