GE hopes to capitalize on foreign travel’s desire for larger planes in India. General Electric’s (GE.N) aviation branch expects to benefit from a boom in Indian domestic air travel and a rise in foreign travel that would boost demand for larger jets, its country chief said.
Cirium data shows that 60% of India’s 700+ commercial jets use GE Aerospace and Safran (SAF.PA) engines. Most are narrowbody planes for the domestic flight.
As more Indians travel, GE expects airlines to add widebody planes for long-haul flights.
“There’s clearly a need for more widebody aircraft,” GE Aerospace’s India and Indonesia country president Vikram Rai told Reuters, calling it “the next path of growth.”
GE predicts 125 million foreign passengers for India by 2030 from 70 million in 2019. As India’s middle class grows to 700 million, demand will rise from 450 million.
That is higher than the U.S. population, which has 5,500-6,000 commercial aircraft, compared to 700 for India. “There is significant growth,” Rai added.
After a record deal to supply 800 fuel-efficient LEAP engines for 400 Air India narrowbody planes in a mega plane purchase, GE is optimistic about India. 30 of the 70 widebody planes ordered will have GE engines.
This follows an order funnel for IndiGo’s 500 Airbus (AIR.PA) narrowbody planes and a contract to power startup airline Akasa’s 72 Boeing (BA.N) aircraft, giving GE a monopoly on India’s narrowbody jet market.
Pratt & Whitney, engine reliability difficulties have grounded scores of Indian carriers and caused IndiGo, the country’s largest, to switch suppliers, cementing GE’s dominance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants aerospace and defense to boost the world’s fifth-largest economy, and Airbus and Boeing have promised greater local manufacture and investment.
GE also develops engine parts with Tata Group for shipment to its global operations nationwide. It renewed its $1 billion Indian behemoth deal in November.
Rai claimed India was a “strategic market for GE Aerospace” and that GE’s component spending had surged 20 times in the last five years.
Comment Template