The continued double-digit growth clocked by the Indian air travellers has made the global aircraft manufacturers revise their outlook on requirements of planes in India in the coming years.
European plan maker Airbus has upwardly revised the requirement of aircrafts by the Indian carriers from 1,300 (announced in 2014) to over 1,600 over the next 20 years. Which means, the Indian carriers should, on an average, will require 80 aircrafts to meet the demands of passengers aspiring to fly within and outside India.
On its part, Boeing puts the requirement of aircrafts for India a little higher at 1,700 planes over next 20 years driven by forecast of high growth, more disposable income, and better air connectivity to come as part of the overall reform that will usher in going forward.
For Airbus and Boeing, the latest numbers capturing the growth in domestic air travellers in India will certainly be heartening. As per the report compiled by the Directorate General Of Civil Aviation (DGCA), on a year-on-year comparison, the domestic airlines have clocked a 24 per cent growth in passengers for the month of February, 2016 (compared to February 2015) by flying a total of 7.4 million passengers. In February 2015, the domestic carriers had flown a total of 6 million passengers.
However, on a month-on-month comparison, February 2016 saw a decline of 2.7 per cent in the number of passengers flying on domestic carriers compared to January 2016 when the total passenger count stood at 7.6 million.
Latest data compiled by aviation regulator DGCA showed that no-frills carrier IndiGo's market share stood at 36.8 per cent in February while that of Jet Airways was 18.4 per cent followed by Air India (15.4 per cent), SpiceJet (13.1 per cent), GoAir (8 per cent), JetLite (2.8 per cent), AirAsia (2.2 per cent), Vistara (2 per cent) and Air Costa (0.8 per cent).
The load factor -- an indicator of seat occupancy -- of majority of the carriers, including IndiGo and SpiceJet, was more than 80 per cent, the DGCA data said.
According to the official, a total of 15.1 million passengers were ferried by domestic airlines during January-February thereby clocking a 23 per cent growth compared to the first two months of 2015 when the total passenger count reported by DGCA stood at 12.2 million passengers.
Boeing said increased traffic, reduction in operating costs, and fare discipline will drive the Indian aviation business towards profitability.
More than 80 million domestic passengers flew by air in 2015 against 66.4 million in 2014 thereby clocking a 21 per cent growth. The recovery in domestic passenger traffic started with 2014.
BW Reporters
Ashish Sinha is an experienced business journalist who has covered FMCG, auto, infrastructure, tourism, telecom among several other beats. Ashish has keen interest in the regulatory scenario impacting different sectors. He writes on aviation, railways, post and telegraph, infrastructure, defence, media & entertainment, among a wide variety of other subjects.