India’s airlines have bounced back well beyond pre-pandemic levels, Boeing said, as Air India, the country’s national carrier, prepared to unveil an historic order for almost 500 new planes on Tuesday.
The U.S. plane maker forecast Indian airline capacity – the number of seats on offer and a gauge of industry confidence – to be 7% higher in the first-half of 2023 than in 2019 amid a strong rebound in the world’s fastest-growing market.
India’s former state-run carrier Air India, now owned by Tata Group, is poised to announce a deal on Tuesday for some 470 jets, worth more than $100 billion at list prices, split between Boeing and Airbus, industry and diplomatic sources said.
None of the companies commented ahead of the announcements, which have triggered hopes of significant industrial spin-offs for local suppliers at the air show, though the commercial deal making is happening away from the mainly defence event.
“The Indian market is recovering rapidly and its domestic capacity has exceeded 2019 levels, with domestic traffic expected to double by the end of this decade,” Dave Schulte, Boeing commercial marketing managing director for Asia Pacific, said in a statement.
Boeing expects 90% of India’s demand for new airplanes to be for single-aisle ones like the 737 MAX and competing Airbus A320neo over the next 20 years.
On the military side of India’s largest air show, state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HIAE.NS) said it is in talks with at least four countries to sell its light-combat aircraft.
Safe wildlife handling practices and virus monitoring systems should be assessed if the zoonotic spillover hypothesis is confirmed.