Airbus said today aircraft orders dropped in 2015 from a year earlier, but were still way ahead its US rival Boeing.
Airbus clocked up 1,036 net orders last year, down from 1,456 in 2014. This compares with Boeing orders of 768, reported last week, falling from 1,432 a year earlier.
Airbus delivered 635 aircraft last year, a record number, compared to 629 in 2014, but well below Boeing's 762 deliveries.
Also Read
Airbus said 2015 deliveries included 491 units of the popular A320 model family.
"This commercial and industrial performance unequivocally proves that global demand for our aircraft has remained resilient," Airbus chief Fabrice Bregier said in a statement.
The company expects to raise deliveries to 650 in 2016, he added at a news conference.
Airbus, headquartered in Toulouse, employs 55,000 people and has so far sold a total of over 16,300 aircraft to 400 customers.
Dwarakanath said every Airbus aircraft that comes out of
thecompany's assembly line is partly made in India. Airbus has a backlog of 528 aircrafts to deliver in the country.
Outlining Airbus cooperation strategy in India, Dwarakanath said it is based on the four pillars' namely engineering, customer services, Aerospace supplier partnerships, R&D and innovation.
Airbus has 400 engineers at engineering center in Bengaluru, and about 45 suppliers across the country.
Noting that there is significant opportunity for the growth of aviation sector in the country, Dwarakanath said domestic growth over the next twenty years is expected to be around 9.3 per cent.
He said "This demand will generate a need for 1,600 new passenger aircraft in the country that is significant compared to what we have today, about 400 aircrafts."
Speaking about the global aviation market, Dwarakanath said "Every fifteen years air traffic doubles globally, for the next twenty years we are expecting a growth of 4.6 per cent, that will generate a demand for about 32,000 aircrafts, two thirds of that will be single-aisel, that's a market valueof about USD 5 trillion".
He said in 1970 and 90's the growth was in Americasand then moved to Europe, adding, "Now is the era for Asia, Asia Pacific. Over the next twenty years there will be significant growth in Asia Pacific.
