The Boeing Company, the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft combined, today said it would deliver the first 787 Dreamliner jets to Japanese carrier ANA during the third quarter of this year, to be followed by Air India.
“We will formally announce the exact date of delivery of the 787 Dreamliner to Air India tomorrow at the Air Show,” Dinesh A Keskar, president, Boeing India, told Business Standard.
Boeing has an order for 27 Dreamliner aircraft from government-owned AI. It has another order for 10 aircraft from Jet Airways. The company has a total order of 856 planes for the Dreamliner, to be completed over five years, Keskar said.
“We have a long-term outlook for India. In the next four to five years, we have orders to deliver 107 aircraft, including Dreamliner jets. Our aim is to deliver 10 aircraft a month by 2013. We cannot comment at this stage on how many we will deliver this year,” he said.
Boeing is confident of achieving 15 per cent growth in the Indian market over the next few years, as Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities here are witnessing huge growth in aviation infrastructure, he said.
Presently, Boeing is looking at a $31-billion addressable market in the Indian defence sector, with another $130 bn of aircraft business from the commercial side in the next 20 years. In addition to offering the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in the current medium multi-role combat aircraft competition, other opportunities in the country include the C-17 Globemaster III, Apache, Chinook and the P-8I, he said.
Keskar said the company’s offset commitment of $2.3 bn was a catalyst to spur technology development and job creation. “We will do more partnerships with small and medium companies in India to develop and produce parts for our aircraft,” he said.
Presently, Boeing has partnerships with Hindustan Aeronautics, Bharat Electronics, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra and Tata. The Tier-I supplier base is directly in place, as are certified small and medium enterprises to work with Boeing suppliers, he said.