Boeing sees more widebody orders from India

...but says LCC orders may go down in the years ahead

BY A CORRESPONDENT
February 28, 2006

Boeing, the world's second largest plane maker in terms of orders, expects demand for planes to go down in the Low Cost Carriers (LCC) segment. Boeing sees consolidation as the main reason behind this, even as Indian economy is on the ascendant.

Same is not the case with wide-body aircraft, thinks Boeing. Being expects demand for these planes to increase as more Indians become richer and fly abroad for holidays.

Dinesh Keskar, Boeing's senior vice president for commercial plane sales was quoted as saying, "Plane leases have gone up because of (recent) demand. Landing fees are the same for both LCCs and full service airlines. And high fuel prices are the same for both".

At the Singapore Asian Aerospace show 2006 he said, "In the (Indian) domestic market, the growth rate (of the aviation industry) is 25%, which could be sustained for the next three years but further forward, these factors will come into play (and orders for planes will ease).

He also said that India has always been a popular destination for foreign tourists and nowadays, more are coming for business travels. Emphasizing the point that the demand for wide body aircrafts would increase further, he added: "there's lots of open skies (agreements) coming and lots of frequencies coming. After Mumbai and Delhi, more foreign airlines are flying to other cities such as Bangalore and Chennai."

Air India recently placed an order for 68 Boeing planes, which included eight 777-200LRs, 15 777-300ERs, 27 787-8s, and 18 737-800s for its LCC unit, Air India Express.