To become an aviation hub, India needs widebodies

To translate all the zealous talk about creating an aviation hub in India and launching more long haul flights - into action, Indian carriers need to induct new wide-body aircraft. The last few days have been exciting in this respect with a lot of chatter about an imminent order from Air India. While I do not wish to speculate about when this would happen, let's take a look at India's wide-body fleet to understand the importance of inducting new aircraft.

The size of our wide-body fleet has been stagnant for years with only 4 aircraft on order vis-à-vis nearly a thousand narrow-body aircraft orders. India's total wide-body fleet size is short of the 50 mark, Air India's 777s are ageing, and the 787s though newer aren't in great shape. A fleet renewal plan is imminent to perk up the hard product, to expand to newer geographies and to keep the ambitions to cap the penetration of Middle Eastern carriers (with 600+ WB aircraft) alive.

Given Boeing's wide-body programs are facing delays; with a freeze on 787 deliveries and no clear timelines on the entry into service for the 777x, Airbus is likely to open an account in India's wide-body segment.

What do you think? Do share your thoughts.

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Image credits: X plane
Sources: Planespotters, airline websites