India will need 1,900 planes by 2038: Airbus

The world's largest aircraft manufacturer Airbus on Thursday forecast that India will need nearly 1,900 new aircraft by 2038 and the country's air traffic growth will be 7.7 per cent, almost twice the expected world average of 4.3 per cent.

India's domestic traffic growth over 2018-2038 period is projected at 8.2 per cent, one of the world's highest. The international traffic growth for the country is pegged at 5-7 per cent.

Anand Stanley, President and Managing Director, Airbus India & South Asia told a news conference here on Thursday that they were bullish on the Indian market but their forecast was conservative and has taken into account cyclical events like coronavirus.

He said out of 1,880 aircraft required, 1,670 will be small and 210 in medium and large categories.

Some 1,440 aircraft are for growth and 440 are needed to replace aircraft that will be retired. Taking into account the 440 retirements, India's existing domiciled fleet of 510 aircraft will quadruple to 1,950 by 2038, he said.

The news conference was organised on the first day of Wings India 2020, Asia's largest event on civil aviation.

On average one Airbus aircraft will be delivered to India every week for the next 10 years.

Anand said India was set to become one of the world's largest economies, with some of the world's fastest growing cities in terms of GDP including Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru.

"In the next 20 years air transportation is expected to be a key enabler and a beneficiary of this economic growth. Rising wealth and urbanisation, and the Indian government's ambitious regional connectivity programmes are all growth drivers," he said.

He said with world-class engineering and training centres and 45-strong supplier network, Airbus' industrial footprint in India set new standards among international aircraft manufacturers.

"Today, every Airbus commercial aircraft is partly made in India and we are working to double our sourcing volumes from the country to more than US$ 1 billion by 2025," he said.

Annual sourcing from India currently stands at $650 million per year. Airbus currently employs 7,000 people in India including 1,500 engineers. IANS