Delivered most planes to India in 2020: Airbus

NEW DELHI: India has seen among the fastest revival of domestic air travel globally, with only China ahead of it, after countries started allowing flights by following Covid protocol. Thanks to this, Airbus says it delivered the highest numbers of aircraft — 57 — to Indian carriers in pandemic 2020, the European aerospace major’s (India & south Asia) president and MD, Rémi Maillard, has told TOI.

“Scheduled domestic flights here were suspended for two months from March 25 to May 25. Domestic air travel now back to 60% of pre-Covid level. No other region, except China, has seen that kind of swift recovery,” he said, while adding that he is “cautiously optimistic” about the industry which is “not yet out of the woods and is still bleeding cash.”

“A number of issues need to be taken care of (in India) like taxation and infrastructure. The pandemic will lead to people preferring to travel direct between India and rest of the world (something which was done largely by transiting via nearby mega hubs in the Gulf and southeast Asia). India has a huge domestic market that can re-configure the contours of international air travel to and from the country in favour of Indian carriers, if the required steps are taken in terms of taxation and infrastructure,” he said.


In pandemic 2020, Airbus had delivered 566 aircraft (wide plus narrow bodies) to 87 customers — 34% below its alltime high of 863 in 2019.