India's air traffic may grow annually by average 7% till 2040: Boeing

Boeing said on Thursday that India has on average 23 million people travelling using trains daily and even if one per cent of them shift to the aviation market, the air traffic will double

Boeing on Thursday said the country’s air traffic will grow by an average of seven per cent per year till 2040 even as the country’s carriers face challenges like high fuel prices, rupee depreciation and low fares.

The aircraft manufacturer’s India president Salil Gupte said that while India’s air traffic will grow 6.9 per cent till 2040, the south-east Asian market will grow at an average annual rate of 5.5 per cent.

The Chinese, African and the Latin American market will grow at an average annual rate of 5.4 per cent, 5.4 per cent and 4.8 per cent till 2040, he added.

Gupte said that India has the lowest average fares in the world for similar distances.

They also said that 70 per cent of the airline’s operational costs is priced in foreign currency.

Gupte said that India has nearly 23 million people travelling on trains every day and even if one per cent of them shifts towards aviation, the air traffic will double.

India’s air cargo market has “massive untapped potential”, he said.

Boeing is always looking into the possibility of increasing raw material supplies from India, Gupte said.

"We have been working to try to enhance raw material supplies from India so that is going to be critical for indigenisation, both in defence and civil aerospace manufacturing space," he said.