Boeing to deliver 24 planes to India in 2025, pins travel hopes on rising middle class

India’s second biggest airline Air India and its youngest Akasa Air together have pending deliveries over 400 Boeing aircraft. Air India has pending deliveries of over 200 Boeing aircraft, while Akasa has an equal number of 737MAX yet to be delivered.  

Boeing expects Indian and South Asian airlines to add 2,835 commercial aircraft by 2043. The American manufacturer believes rising middle classes and healthy economic growth will spur travel. The company also expects the region's demand for widebody aircraft quadruple in the next 20 years.

As per its global commercial outlook, there will be a strong demand of 44,000 aircraft globally through 2043. By region, Asia Pacific and Eurasia is expected to see the highest demand of 22% of all orders, followed by 21% and 20% for North America and China respectively.

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Ashwin Naidu, MD-commercial marketing for India and South Asia, said, “The India and South Asia region continues to be the world’s fastest-growing commercial aviation market due to strong economic and trade growth, rising household incomes and investments in infrastructure and development."  

Calendar year 2024 was a tough year for Boeing due to multiple technical incidents due to quality issues with their aircraft. Production was already impacted due to supply chain challenges, but a seven-week-long strike related to contracts of workers further affected production at its Everett and Renton assembly plant in the US. The halt in production resulted in losses of billions.

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Boeing sees India and South Asia as the leading economic market region with the highest traffic growth rate. It expects the region's air traffic to grow by 7.4% annually till 2043. Air traffic in Southeast Asia, China, North America and Europe is expected to grow 5.6%,5.4%, 2.5% and 2.9% respectively till 2043.

Boeing sees 2025 as a year with both headwinds and tailwinds for the Indian aviation sector. As per the company, jet fuel volatility and currency pressures, lower fare levels versus global averages and slower infrastructure growth are the likely headwinds.

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The company however feels that stabilization, financial performance and trade will be the tailwinds for the sector. Boeing sees consolidation strengthening the operations and balance sheets of Indian airlines.

For the first time in India, one of the busiest markets Delhi and Mumbai will see a dual airport system in the new fiscal. Boeing believes that the Noida International Airport and the Navi Mumbai Airport will be catalysts for Indian aviation when fully operational.

The Noida International Airport is being built by Yamuna International Airport Pvt. Ltd (YIAPL), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Zurich Airport International. The airport is expected to start operations from the new fiscal year, initially with a single runway and single terminal. In the long term, the airport is expected to be the biggest in the country with six runways and capacity to handle over 70 million passengers annually.

The Navi Mumbai International Airport which will be Mumbai's second airport is being developed by the Adani Group. It is expected to start operations in the new fiscal year. In the first phase the airport will have an annual capacity of 20 million passengers annually.

Production concerns

Currently the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has imposed a cap on the production of 737 MAX. As per this cap, in 2025 Boeing can manufacture only 38 MAX aircraft. Boeing is expected to attempt to ramp up MAX production in 2025.