Indian carriers have placed record orders over the last 18 months. This includes a mega order by Air India with both Airbus and Boeing; IndiGo’s record order of 500 narrow body aircraft, which was followed up with 30 firm A350 commitments – which are yet to reflect in the Airbus Orders and Deliveries and Akasa Air’s order for 150 aircraft with Boeing which was placed at Wings India early this year.
These orders were over and above the intermediate announcements which Air India made to augment capacity. This included inducting former Delta and Etihad aircraft and inducting a handful of A320neo family aircraft from the lessors orderbook. These inductions do not reflect the record order from IndiGo, deliveries for which begin in 2031. IndiGo’s current inductions are part of its previous orders which were records in itself in one way or another.
Akasa Air and Air India Express got benefits of white tail aircraft with Boeing, which were cancelled by carriers largely in China and Korea after the two deadly crashes of the MAX 8 and subsequent groundings.
Let us have a look at how things are placed. The data is current as of June 10, 2024 and was released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. There are 810 passenger aircraft registered with scheduled airlines in the country. This excludes the freighters which are operated by IndiGo and SpiceJet with their respective cargo arms and is only reflecting the passenger capacity, albeit some of these are grounded. This, obviously, is the first time that the Indian civil aviation registry has crossed the 800 mark.
Airbus or Boeing?
Airbus has maintained the lead in the overall count with 544 aircraft being Airbus aircraft. This is 67.16% of the total fleet. Boeing has 19.75% of the share with 160 aircraft. There are 67 ATR aircraft in the country comprising 8.27% of the total fleet. The rest which includes DHC, Embraer, Cessna and Dornier comprise 4.81% of the fleet.
With a large narrowbody lead with IndiGo, Airbus cannot be displaced as of now. The widebody dream for India is catching up but has a long way to go, with 78.64% of the fleet being narrowbody, 8.27% being widebody. Turboprops have nearly 12% of the market while Regional Jets have 1.1%.
Narrowbody: Airbus firmly in command
The narrowbody fleet is skewed in favour of Airbus with 538 out of 637 narrowbody jets in India being Airbus. Boeing has 99 or 15.54% of the total. As Air India Express and Akasa Air plan expansion, Boeing will have some entry points but even as the numbers grow – the share may not grow as Airbus also has deliveries lined up and could see induction at the same pace.
The fall of Jet Airways and financial issues with SpiceJet has not bode well for Boeing in the Indian market.
Widebody: Boeing dominates, but Airbus enters the equation
Airbus was non-existent in this market before December 2023. 100% of the market belonged to Boeing. With Air India inducting 6 A350-900s which were originally destined for Aeroflot but the war led sanctions saw a cancellation in delivery, Airbus has made a re-entry in the Indian skies on the widebody side. These 6 make it 8.9% of the market for Airbus, with Boeing having 61 out of 67 widebody aircraft with Indian carriers.
Airbus has 34 more A350s on order and IndiGo has agreed to buy 30, but the tilt in favour of Airbus is many years away.
Indian airlines committed to fleet renewal
In the widebody segment, 60% of aircraft are new generation (B787 or A350). In the narrowbody segment, 84.39% of Airbus are the next generation “neo” aircraft, while 51% of Boeing fleet is the next generation “MAX”. Air India Express should see a gradual redelivery of its older 737NG aircraft, while the fleet situation with SpiceJet remains a mystery.
Overall, India remains one of the fastest markets which is adapting newer fuel efficient aircraft.
Operational fleet
While the registered fleet may have crossed 800, not all of them are flying. Close to 80 aircraft (or 10% of total Indian fleet) of IndiGo are grounded due to the powder metal and other issues with Pratt & Whitney. SpiceJet has a handful of aircraft which are grounded as it continues to face financial crunch. There also are a bunch of planes with other carriers which are grounded or yet to fly post delivery due to a mix of supply chain issues impacting operationalisation.
The 800 aircraft fleet is a milestone in itself, however it is also a constant reminder of how far we have to go in this area. At the end of 2023, American Airlines – one of the top 3 American carriers had a fleet of 965 aircraft, which does include its affiliate airlines regional network.
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