With the growing order book of aircraft original equipment manufacturers, Boeing has said India may need more than 31,000 pilots and some 26,000 mechanics in the next 20 years. Salil Gupte, President of Boeing India, said that the South Asian region will continue to grow the fastest in the next 20 years on the sidelines of a CII event here.
“India will require over 31,000 pilots and 26,000 mechanics over the next 20 years to service the aircraft coming in. This is as important as the aircraft (orders).” Gupte said.
Given India’s growing air traffic, Boeing president said there needs to be a great deal of focus on hard infrastructure, including airports, as well as critical infrastructure, such as pilots.
Last month, Tata Group-owned Air India announced that it had ordered 470 planes from Boeing and Airbus.
According to Boeing, India’s air traffic will grow around 7 percent by 2040.
Boeing does not see any impact of the financial crisis on the growth of air travel after coming out of the pandemic.
Gupte said it is too early to predict the effects of the bank situation in the US and Europe. “At this point, we really don’t see any slowdown in aviation demand,” he said.
In India, Boeing has a large market for narrow body aircraft, he said, and he predicted that “as much as 90% of the market in the next 20 years will be narrow body aircraft, and we expect to be successful competing for those every single campaign.”
In addition, Gupte emphasized that Boeing is the global leader in wide-body aircraft (twin aisle) and will remain so in all markets.
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