President and Managing Director, Airbus India and South Asia, Anand Stanley on Thursday said that India will require over 1500 new passenger and cargo aircraft between 2020 and 2038.
Anand Stanley, speaking to ANI said, "India will require 1,880 new passenger and cargo aircraft between now and 2038, in response to strong demand, according to Airbus' latest India Market Forecast. Of these, up to 20 percent could be widebodies."
"Some 1,440 aircraft are for growth and 440 are needed for replacement aircraft that will be retired. Taking into account the 440 retirements, India's existing domiciled fleet of 510 aircraft will quadruple 1,950 by 2038," he added.
India is set to become one of the world's largest economies, with some of the world's fastest-growing cities in terms of GDP--Chennai and Bengaluru.
"In the next 20 years, air transportation is expected to be a key enabler and a beneficiary of this economic growth. Rising wealth and urbanization, and the Indian government's ambitious regional connectivity programs are all growth drivers. In the next 20 years, Indian traffic is forecast to increase at 8.2 per cent per year, making it the world's fastest-growing market," said Stanley.
He stated that India is at the forefront of global aviation growth and Airbus is proud to partner with the country's choice of aircraft.
"With our world-class engineering and training centers and our 45 strong supplier network, Airbus' industrial footprint in India has set. Today, every Airbus commercial aircraft is partly made in India and we are working to double our sourcing volumes to more than US $ 1 billion by 2025," said Stanley.
He added this shows our commitment to the Indian aviation sector, to our customers and to the government's 'Make in India' program.