'India will buy 1,001 planes in 20 years'

Thu, Jul 24 01:40 AM

The Boeing Company, world's largest manufacturer of commercial airplanes, said Indian airline companies would buy 1,001 new planes in the next 20 years despite the ongoing gloom in the civil aviation sector. By 2027, India will have a total of 1,204 commercial planes as 203 aging aircraft in the existing fleet would be taken away from operation, a top Boeing official said.

"Our forecast is that India would need 1,001 new passenger and freighter planes worth $105 billion over the next two decades," said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice-president, sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes while releasing Boeing's 2008 Current Market Outlook for India. "This is an increase of 90 more planes than our previous forecast made in 2007.

" The outlook for India includes 59 regional jets with less than 100 seats, 728 single-aisle aircraft like the Boeing 737 and A320, 203 twin-aisle like A330, A340, Boeing 777 and 11 larger planes such as Boeing 747, 787 and A 380. However, he refused to quantify the number of planes Boeing would sell in India from the forecasted numbers.

He said the slowdown in the aviation market would continue for the next 12 months and the industry would gradually tide over this crisis by cutting over capacity by 15 per cent and deploying several cost saving measures.On the 787 Dreamliner, he said Air India would get the first delivery of this plane in the last quarter of 2009.

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