Indian aviation has scope for 130-150 more wide-body aircraft: GE Aerospace

India’s fast-growing civil aviation market has the scope to have 130-150 more wide-body planes as airlines expand their operations and there is also the potential for more such aircraft to be deployed in dense domestic routes, GE Aerospace South Asia CEO Vikram Rai said.

GE Aerospace, a leading aircraft engine maker, sees a “great potential” in India, which is also the world’s third largest aviation market and domestic airlines have nearly 1,500 aircraft on order.

While emphasising that “India is a focus market and a priority market for GE Aerospace”, Rai said that in his view, domestic airlines would consider having more wide-body planes in their fleet and also deploy them in dense domestic routes.

“I see wide-body aircraft as a growth path for us and the airlines which is a win-win (scenario),” he told PTI in a recent interview.

Currently, India has around 700 commercial planes in operation and out of them, there are only about 50 wide-body aircraft. Air India has around 49 wide-body aircraft in its fleet while IndiGo has two wet-leased wide-body planes in operation.

In the current wide-body fleet, there would be replacements required. So, there is “scope to add 130-150 wide-body planes in India,” Rai said and added that rising international passengers from the country also augur well for the wide-body segment.

With rising air passenger traffic, the government is also working on ways to develop international aviation hubs in India so that domestic carriers can ferry passengers directly to various overseas destinations.

Currently, a majority of the people flying from India to international destinations travel by connecting flights operated by foreign carriers.

“We have to get to a point where we can get end-to-end carrying our passengers. That is the next step of growth we are talking about,” Rai said.

The civil aviation ministry has also been pitching for Indian carriers to have more wide-body planes to capture a higher share in the long haul segment.

Rai said there is potential for deployment of wide-body planes in dense domestic routes as that would also help in addressing the slot constraints at airports.

Citing the examples of Japanese and Chinese markets where a lot of domestic operations are done with wide-body planes, he said that in a dense route like Delhi-Mumbai, rather than having two narrow-body aircraft and consume the parking slots in Mumbai, airlines could look at deploying a wide-body plane.

“In dense domestic routes, given the passenger traffic increase and India being the third largest civil aviation market, you probably will have wide-body aircraft in domestic routes also… the future is not only international operations on wide-body but also domestic dense route operations with wide- body aircraft,” he said.

Around 1,100 aircraft powered by the engines of GE Aerospace or CFM are expected to be delivered in the Indian market in the next eight to nine years. CFM International is an equal joint venture between GE and Safran Aircraft Engines.

GE Aerospace has a firm order for 40 GEnx-1B and 20 GE9X engines for Air India’s 20 Boeing 787 and 10 Boeing 777X aircraft that are on order. They have also entered into a multi-year TrueChoice engine services agreement.

Besides, Air India has ordered for more than 800 LEAP engines from CFM. The engine order is for the airline’s entire narrow-body purchase of 210 Airbus A320/A321neo aircraft and 190 Boeing 737 MAX-family aircraft. It also includes a multi-year CFM services agreement.

On concerns about possible duopoly in the Indian airlines market, Rai said that right now, a lot of consolidation is happening and there will always be space for more carriers.

“Probably, I wouldn’t say duopoly… there will always be space for third or fourth carriers. India is too large a market to say it is a duopoly,” he noted.

In August, IndiGo’s domestic market share stood at 63.3 per cent while that of Air India group was at 26.7 per cent, as per the latest official data.

Air India group includes Air India, Vistara and AirAsia, which has been rebranded as AIX Connect.