Boeing Sees India Growth Among ‘Greatest’ in World

Boeing Co., the second-biggest commercial planemaker, said the potential for air-travel expansion in India is “among the greatest” in the world and maintained its 20-year sales outlook for the South Asian nation.

Indian carriers may buy 1,000 new jets worth $100 billion in the next two decades, Dinesh Keskar, president of Boeing India, said in New Delhi today. The country accounts for 3 percent of Boeing’s commercial-jet market globally, he said.

“There is strength and resilience in Indian commercial aviation sector over the long term,” Keskar said. “‘The potential for future growth of air travel, both domestically and internationally, is among the greatest in the world.”

Rising incomes and the start of new discount carriers have prompted more people to opt for air travel in India, the world’s second-fastest growing major economy. Air India, Jet Airways (India) Ltd., Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. and other local carriers have placed orders with Airbus SAS and Boeing totaling more than $30 billion in the past three years.

Seven airlines have started operations in India in the past six years, including budget carriers SpiceJet Ltd. and Go Airlines India Pvt., as Asia’s third-largest economy grew an average 8.5 percent in the past five years.

Boeing in June forecast a global market for 29,000 new commercial planes during the next 20 years, valued at $3.2 trillion. The Chicago-based company today repeated that it will deliver 480 to 485 jets this year.