India requires about 1,900 new aircraft in the next 20 years

India will require 1,880 new passenger and cargo aircraft between now and 2038, in response to strong demand, according to Airbus’ latest India Market Forecast. Of these, up to 20 percent could be wide-bodies. 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.

India is 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. In the next 20 years, Indian traffic is forecast to increase at 8.2% per year, making it the world’s fastest growing market.

“India is at the forefront of global aviation growth and Airbus is proud to partner it as the country’s aircraft of choice. With our world-class engineering and training centres and our 45-strong supplier network, Airbus’ industrial footprint in India has 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,” said Anand Stanley, President and Managing Director, Airbus India & South Asia.  “This shows our commitment to the Indian aviation sector, to our customers and to the government’s ‘Make in India’ programme.”

Airbus product catalogue offers the A220 and the best-selling A320 Families in the single aisle market, as well as the popular A330, A330neo, the A350-900 and the A350-1000 in the Medium and Large categories. In the freighter market Airbus currently offers the new-build A330-200F and the Passenger-to-Freighter (A330P2F) programme.

Airbus’ 20-year Global Market Forecast is driven by long-term macroeconomic projections rather than short-term factors. The annual forecast takes into account the evolution of economic, geopolitical, environmental and societal trends.

India highlights:

  - Airbus aircraft represent some 80% of India’s order backlog; Nearly 65% of in-service fleet 

  - Annual growth of 7.7% in passenger traffic (global average 4.3%)

  - Domestic annual passenger growth of 8.2% – world’s fastest growing market

  - New aircraft needs: 1,670 Small, 210 Medium and Large categories

  - India: the largest single market for the A320neo Family (738 aircraft)

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

  - Airbus secures 7,000 jobs including 1,500 engineers in India

 -  Annual sourcing from India at more than US$650 million per year.