BENGALURU:The US aircraft maker, Boeing has said that Indian airline operators can make profits if they get their pricing right.
The statement comes at a time when Indian airline operators have been saddled with successive mounting losses in recent times.
Speaking to agencies at the ongoing Paris International Air Show, Dinesh Keskar, Boeing (India) President said that factors including fuel prices, exchange rate and demand-supply ratio determines profitability of an airline.
Indian carriers need to get its fares right to start making profits. Indian carriers, led by SpiceJet has announced a slew of discounted fares for millions of tickets to consolidate its market share in recent times.
According to aviation analyst firm CAPA, Indian carriers’s estimated losses in Fy 15 was around $1.4 billion. Most Indian carriers have reported losses in recent quarters. Though Indian airfares are one of the lowest globally, airlines have struggled due to high operational costs mostly from high price of Aviation Turbine Fuel and the depreciating rupee.
However, the company remains upbeat and is looking to upward revise its India sales forecast from the existing 8%, he told agencies. “We are very clear that the Indian market is going to grow at the fastest rate across the world. Our 20-year annual growth rate forecast for India currently stands at 8% and we had estimated the country’s aircraft requirement at US $205 billion,” he reportedly said and added, “but we will revise upward this forecast this month.” The company is banking on Indian airline operator’s ‘fleet renewal plan’ to boost sales in the sub-continent. Keskar is also VP, Asia-Pacific & India Sales for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, had earlier (February 2015) told Express that they were in talks with full service carrier to replace 70 737 aircraft in their fleet. Poised to be one of the biggest civil aviation markets in the world by 2020, Boeing has forecasted that India needs 1450 new aircraft in the next two decades.
