Airbus expects India's commercial fleet size to triple to 2,250 by 2035

Hyderabad: India's commercial aircraft fleet will triple in size to 2,250 aircraft over the next decade, as the country grows to become the third-largest civil aviation market in the world by 2035, a senior official of the aircraft maker Airbus said on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference on the sidelines of Wings India 2026, Jürgen Westermeier, President and Managing Director, Airbus India and South Asia said the fleet expansion is driven both by the Indian aviation market boom and the Indian airlines’ ambition to expand on international routes.

Westermeier also said Airbus currently has a backlog of 1,250 aircraft from Indian carriers and hopes to deliver on an average 120-150 planes every year which translates into two per week.

The fleet expansion is driven both by the Indian aviation market boom and the Indian airlines’ ambition to expand on international routes.

"And we are expecting a compound growth of (passenger traffic) around 8.9 per cent in the next 10 years. How do we see the infrastructure? How do we see the aviation system which will support this growth? We are expecting around 200 airports in 10 years, so another 50 airports more. We will see a tripling of the fleet. So we will have around 2,250 aircraft in service in 10 years," Westermeier said.

An additional positive factor associated with the growing fleet is creating more capacity for freight as the annual cargo capacity of Indian carriers will be bigger than 5,000 kilo tonne (five million tonne), which again is a tripling of what the country has today.

"Also, we can clearly say that with 850 aircraft today, India is still a nascent market, and with numbers, trips per capita (at) 0.13, compared to other similar regions, still very low. So, a lot of opportunity for growth, and a lot of opportunity for the people of India to utilize aviation as a means of transport," he said.

According to him, the Indian carriers have placed orders for more than 1,700 aircraft and 72 per cent of this backlog is Airbus.

He further said India is expected to add 50 more airports to the existing 150 in the next 10 years.

To keep this scaled-up fleet airborne, the requirement of pilots is set to surge to 35,000 by 2035, up from the current 12,000, while the technical workforce must grow to 34,000, tripling the current strength of 11,000, he said.

The maintenance market will triple with fleet growth from today's USD 3 billion to USD 9.5 billion in 10 years, including airframe, component and engine MRO activities.

Airbus is establishing final assembly lines for the Airbus H125 helicopters, which will be targeted for delivery next year.

Currently, Airbus sourcing in India stands at USD 1.5 billion, where more than half of it is complex parts up to doors, and is also looking into raw material composites to further strengthen the sourcing in the country, Westermeier said.