India needs 1,600 aircraft in 20 years, says Boeing

 Hyderabad, March 13: Raising its forecast for India, Boeing on Thursday said India needs 1,600 new aircraft worth $205 billion over next 20 years.

Last year’s forecast was 1,450 airplanes at $175 billion.

Dinesh Keskar, vice president, sales, Boeing commercial airplanes, told reporters at India Aviation 2014 that the company was bullish about India.

He said their forecast was based on the thinking of civil aviation ministry and lot of things planned for the development of the aviation sector.

He pointed out that the ministry expects the number of aircraft in India to go up from 400 to 1,000 in six years. "Another 1,000 airplanes will be added in 14 years," said Keskar.

He said that the forecast is based on normal behaviour pattern and that they took into account infrastructure and policy framework.

Keskar reiterated that there are no safety issues involved in Dreamliners 787 supplied to Air India. "Boeing is committed to enhance reliability of 787 Air India to enhance the reliability of 787," he said.

He also denied that Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) threatened Boeing. "We were asked to come and brief because DGCA as a regulator need to take action," he said.

He said Boeing delivered 122 787s to 16 airlines worldwide and the airplanes so far flew 13.3 million passengers.

He claimed that a survey done in India done by Boeing showed that over 58 percent of passengers who flew 787 said it exceeded their expectations while 32 percent said it met their expectations.