Hyderabad, 19 Jan

Backed by high traffic growth, India will need more than 2,500 new aircraft deliveries by 2042, Darren Hulst, Boeing vice-president of Commercial Marketing said on Friday.

Addressing a press conference, Hulst said to meet rising passenger and cargo demand, South Asian carriers are projected to quadruple the size of their fleets over the next two decades and they will require more than 2,705 new airplanes to address growth and fleet replacement.

"Over 92 per cent of that (2,705) or over 2,500 (aircraft India will need) by 2042. It is based on the (forecast given in) middle of the last year," he told reporters.

"We project that carriers here (South Asia including India) will need more than 2,700 aircraft deliveries by the year 2042," he said, adding a similar composition of the fleet with more than 2,300 single aisle, nearly 400 wide body aircraft for long haul.

According to Boeing, India is the only large economy, a large market in Asia that has evolved to pre-pandemic levels both domestically and internationally in terms of demand.

That reflects how important air travel is in the marketplace, also the strength of the Indian economy and how connected a traveller is to continued growth, he further said.

He said it is expected the India cargo fleet will go 80 airplanes over next 20 years asserting that a massive untapped potential with only 15 freighter aircraft now. PTI