Boeing sees Indian airlines raising capacity by 25% over next year (updated)

Jet Airways (India)

01/09/2022 07:31

(Adds details of Boeing's market share; paragraphs 4-9)
    By Aditi Shah
    NEW DELHI, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Planemaker Boeing Co  BA.N 
expects Indian airlines to boost their capacity by at least 25%
over the next year as demand rebounds quickly in the world's
fastest-growing major market, an executive said on Thursday.
    "We are forecasting airlines to rebound quickly and add
25-plus percent annual seats back into the market," Dave
Schulte, the managing director for regional marketing at Boeing
Commercial Airplanes, told reporters.
    In the longer term, Boeing expects an annual capacity
increase of 7% in India, outpacing other top high-growth
markets, he added.
    Indian skies are dominated by low-cost carriers (LCCs)
including IndiGo  INGL.NS , SpiceJet  SPJT.NS , GoFirst and
AirAsia India, with the majority of them operating Airbus
 AIR.PA  narrowbody planes.
    Boeing dominates India's widebody market but fare wars and
high costs have led to casualties among full-service carriers,
including Kingfisher Airlines in 2012 and Jet Airways  JET.NS 
in 2019, making LCCs and Airbus even more dominant.    
    But India's newest budget carrier Akasa Air and new owners
Tata and Sons at Air India and the Jalan-Kalrock consortium at
Jet Airways are giving the U.S. planemaker hope of clawing back
share in the Indian market as they eye more plane orders.
    Akasa has 72 Boeing 737 MAX planes on order. 
    Boeing's biggest customer in India, SpiceJet, said on
Wednesday it plans to induct more MAX planes in its fleet even
as it struggles to make timely payments to vendors and lessors,
prompting some of them to deregister and take back planes.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N3073AG
    The loss-making airline has 155 MAX jets on order but has
been slow in adding planes to its fleet even after the aircraft
was cleared for flying by the country's aviation regulator last
year following a global ban sparked by two deadly crashes. 

 (Reporting by Aditi Shah; Writing by Jamie Freed; Editing by
Clarence Fernandez and Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
 ((aditi.shah@tr.com; +91-11-4954 8023, +91-11-3015 8023;
Reuters Messaging: twitter: @aditishahsays))