230 planes to deliveres to Indian airlines from 3Q’18

Boeing, with deliveries of 230 planes to Indian airlines from third quarter, says Indian market is growing well but for fuel price and foreign exchange, a senior executive has said.

Boeing has recently delivered two 777s to Air India’s for “VVIP fleet” for used by the President and Prime Minister, replacing the existing 747s.

The Indian market is growing “very well” at 15% but the airlines profitability is on borderline, observed Dinesh Keskar, Senior Vice President for sales in Asia Pacific and India at Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Last year, the market grew 20% per annum based on three to four years average, he pointed out.

“The growth is doing good,” he said at Singapore Airshow theing held 6-11 February 2018.

“Right now, the airlines’ profitability is just on the borderline,” he cautioned, citing fuel price, Rupee-Dollar exchange rate and supply and demand on planes versus passengers.

“We have to watch this and we will continue to watch and see the amendments we need to make,” said Keskar of the market.

He felt the Rupee was stable against the US dollar as of now.

Keskar was also monitoring the supply and demand scenario in the industry, pointing out that oversupply of planes in the industry could lead to discounts in fares, resulting in negative impact on the industry.

Boeing will start delivering from this July quarter its orders of 155-aeroplanes to SpiceJet and 75 to Jet Airways. fii-news.com