Indian Carriers to Increase Fleets This Year

Monday, 17th March 2014 at 07:57am

With the expected growth in air travel across India and the whole region to accelerate in the coming years, Indian carriers are planning to increase their respective fleets this year through placement of orders by as many as 400 aircraft.

Industry experts suggest that Indian aviation sector will finally see modest growth this year and onwards as market demand in air travel across India is seen to increase due to the improving economy of the country. Thus, it allows more people to travel by air both on business and leisure.

Indian carriers, according to the Report Outlook for 2014-15 as compiled by Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), are expected to place orders this year a combine of up to 400 planes between them.

Currently, all Indian airlines have a combined fleet of 400 aircraft ranging in size from as few as 5 from Air Costa to as many as 137 from Air India group. They also have outstanding order of 350 aircraft which they expect to take delivery by 2015, making their combined fleet to hit more than 700 by then.

The start-up Air Costa, for instance, has just made a firm order with a Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, Embraer, for a total of 50 narrow-body medium-range airliners worth US$2.94 billion with the option of another 50 of the same aircraft type.

The soon-to-be-launched full-service airline of Tata Group and Singapore Airlines has outstanding orders of up to 20 A320 aircraft which it will use for its inaugural operations within this year.

Jet Airways which has just inked partnership with Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, is also expected to get some of the wide-body jets the latter has ordered during the Dubai Air Show last year. IndiGo, on the other hand, is planning to augment its fleet by placing orders of up to 200-250 aircraft this year.

The country's domestic and international traffic grew by 6% and 10.7% in the current fiscal year without specific figures as to the real numbers of travelers. The domestic traffic, though, is expected to slow down in the succeeding fiscal year, between 1 and 5% while the international traffic is seen to grow at a modest rate by up to 12%.

While the aviation sector is already improving, the three major carriers, Air India, Jet Airways and SpiceJet, are expected to report losses in the current fiscal year with Air India to own the biggest share.

GoAir, the only domestic carrier that has been profitable for the past years, however, won't be able to gain enough momentum as it is expected to grow only modestly, if at all, in the current fiscal year.

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