The exponential growth of international traffic to and from India has the potential for further induction of widebody aircraft by domestic airlines, Boeing India President Salil Gupte told FE.
“As the world’s third-largest civil aviation market, India’s fleet is set to nearly quadruple in size by 2041 compared to 2019,”Gupte said. “With this expansion, India-based airlines have a significant opportunity to capture their fair share in international markets, especially to the US, Canada, Europe and Australia,” he added.
Currently, on India-US routes, Indian carriers account for less than 20% of the total market, in contrast to peer markets like China and Japan, where home-based airlines dominate a much larger share of air traffic.
According to the Boeing commercial market outlook, having the right widebody airplanes with the highest performance capability, cost efficiency, and sustainability footprint will enable India’s widebody market to grow from approximately 60 airplanes today to an estimated 230 by 2041.
“The integration of high-performance widebody aircraft like the 777X will be pivotal in meeting the rising demand and fueling the expansion of India’s aviation sector,” Gupte said.
At present, Air India, Vistara, and IndiGo operate widebody aircraft in India. The demand for these types of aircraft has risen due to the increased demand for point-to-point connectivity between destinations in North America, Europe, and India.
Notably, international traffic has been steadily growing over the last 18 months to 2.4 million passengers per month. On average, a widebody aircraft can ferry more passengers over longer distances than a narrow-body aircraft.
“There is greater focus on increasing coverage of long-distance routes and also offering point-to-point services. Considering the above and also factoring in the fuel efficiency that these aircraft’s bring, we will continue to see robust demand for wide-bodied aircraft,” Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, senior director, Crisil Market Intelligence, told Fe.
In India, wide-body aircraft such as 777s and 787s are in the service of India-based airlines. Recently, Air India received the first of its 20 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, registered VT-JRA, on December 23, 2023.
The airline will showcase the brand new aircraft at the ‘Wings India’ in Hyderabad, which is scheduled later this month. At the same time, it is highly anticipated that the Boeing 777X will also be showcased at the Wings India aero show.
The 777X features new GE9X engines, new composite wings with folding wingtips, greater cabin width and seating capacity, and technologies from the Boeing 787.
The 777-8 provides seating for 384 passengers and has a range of 8,745 nautical miles (16,196 km), while the 777-9 has seating for 426 passengers and a range of over 7,285 nmi (13,492 km).