Airbus has orders worth $35 b from India

(Reuters): European plane maker Airbus has orders worth $35 billion from India, a senior company executive said on Friday, with recent record order wins in the fast-growing market accounting for more than half of the total orders.

Indian carriers are rapidly expanding their operations as an economy growing at nearly 9 percent spurs business travel and the middle class, long accustomed to travelling by rail, increasingly takes to the air.

Airbus has an order backlog of more than 400 planes to be delivered to Indian carriers over the next 15 years, Joost Van Der Heijden, Airbus’ head of airline marketing for Africa, India, South East Asia and Japan, told reporters in Mumbai.

He said India is the seventh-largest market for Airbus but expected it to climb in coming years.

“India will move up with traffic growth higher than anywhere in the world,” Heijden said.

“The Indian fleet will certainly more than double and could even triple in the coming years,” he said on the sidelines of an industry conference organised by Euromoney.

Indian budget carriers Indigo and GoAir last month placed plane orders worth nearly $23 billion in total with Airbus.

Rival Boeing has existing orders of about $15 billion with airlines in India, the top official in its Indian unit said on Thursday.

Boeing expects India’s commercial plane market to reach $150 billion over the next 20 years, as a burgeoning middle class is expected to drive demand in Asia’s third-largest economy.