Indian carriers likely to triple fleet size in 10 years, says Airbus

NEW DELHI: Airbus on Thursday said it expects Indian carriers to triple the size of their fleets to 2,250 jets over the next decade, riding resilient economic growth, an expanding middle-class and a surge of first-time flyers. Jurgen Westermeier, president and managing director of Airbus India and South Asia, said the fleet expansion is driven both by the Indian aviation market boom and the Indian airlines' ambition to expand on international routes.

He said passenger traffic in India is expected to grow at 8.9% a year over the next decade until 2035-the fastest among the major economies and well above the long-term global average.

"Airbus is uniquely placed to support this growth with the A320 Family for domestic expansion and the A321XLR and A350 to lead India's medium-to-long-haul international ambitions," he said.


The European aerospace giant also expects the regional air traffic in India to grow and further democratise the country's aviation ecosystem. "We generally see the regional market and the regional air traffic as a good opportunity for further growth and also for further democratisation," Westermeier said.

"I must say, in the wider Airbus portfolio, we have the ATR aircraft as a product, which, in my opinion, is superior in supporting the regional traffic. There is an ecosystem existing to support this one. The competitiveness is excellent."