Boeing ups forecast for Indian plane market to 1,450 new aircraft by 2031

Boeing today raised its forecast for the Indian plane market, saying the South Asian country would need 1,450 new aircraft worth $175 billion by 2031. The US planemaker had last year projected demand at 1,320 planes up to 2030, worth $150 billion.

India would see the highest passenger traffic growth in the world, higher than even China's in the next 20 years, Dinesh Keskar, Boeing's senior vice president for Asia Pacific and India, told reporters.

Boeing officials forecast passenger traffic to grow by 8.4 per cent annually in South Asia, including India, and by 7 per cent annually in China up to 2031.

Boeing and European rival Airbus have been in fierce global competition for passenger aircraft market share, resorting at times to even halving prices to boost orders of newly-revamped models of their best-selling narrow body jets.

India, one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world, offers tremendous growth opportunities to planemakers with air travel growing by leaps and bounds as newly affluent consumers take to ait travel.

India's domestic air traffic was down 1.1 per cent in July as against a year ago, the worst performance for any market globally, according to the International Air Transport Association, an industry body representing over 80 per cent of global air traffic.