India is positioned to become the region’s fastest growing aviation market over a period of 20 years, Boeing India president Salil Gupte said on September 1.
Gupte’s prediction comes amid the ebbing threat of COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to a sharp recovery of domestic air travel and international flights originating from India.
The growth of India’s aviation sector offers a “tremendous opportunity” for all the stakeholders involved, the Boeing India chief added.
“India, in this region, is going to be the fastest-growing (aviation) market over forecast period of 20 years,” news agency ANI quoted Gupte as saying.
“Some of that growth is actually faster than 7 percent, then as the market matures it is slower but average is up to 7 percent over that time which creates a tremendous opportunity for all of us involved in Indian aviation to support that growth to not only passing your product in the domestic market but also in the international market,” he further said.
India’s per-day air passengers count crossed four lakh-mark in April, for the first time since the pandemic broke out. Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had, in March, claimed that the pre-COVID count of 415,000 passengers would be crossed “within the next year”.
With the bulk of India’s 1.4 billion-strong population yet to use air as the mode of travel, industry experts are optimistic about the country’s aviation sector for the period to come. “Civil aviation of today will be tomorrow’s railways in terms of transport in India,” Scindia had said at an event in March, adding, the country needs to “tap the potential”.
Gupte, who is heading the India wing of aerospace major Boeing, is the latest to validate India’s position for growth in the aviation sector. In June, Singapore Airlines’ chief executive officer Goh Choon Phong told Bloomberg that India is “obviously a very important” growth area for the airline “because it’s going to be massive”.
Boeing currently counts SpiceJet, Akasa Air and Air India group as its customers.
“We are forecasting airlines to rebound quickly and add 25%-plus percent annual seats back into the market,” Dave Schulte, the managing director for regional marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes said.
India’s airlines will lead air traffic growth through 2040, growing at a rate of 6.9 %. The growth for the South East Asia market is pegged at 5.5 %, China (5.4 %), Africa (5.4 %) and Latin America (4.8 %)
