Airline sector may land in profit zone in quarter-four

Bangalore: Boeing Company senior vice-president (sales) Dinesh A Keskar says a recovery in the commercial aviation sector is likely around the fourth quarter of calendar year 2009. The airplane company announced that it had not seen any order cancellations from Indian carriers so far despite the economic slowdown and dip in passenger traffic in India.
Boeing has an order backlog of 100 aircraft to be delivered over five years to Air India, Jet Airways and SpiceJet. Boeing’s market outlook 2008 pegs India’s demand for new passenger and freight aircraft at 1,001 over the next 20 years at the current list price of $105 billion. In 2006, Boeing bagged an Air India order for 68 planes at a value of $11 billion.
Mr Keskar, who takes charge as president of Boeing’s Indian operations from March 1, maintains that the company’s plan of setting up an MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) facility at Nagpur was on track. The MRO, essentially built to service the new cadre of 68 Air-India planes, will be operational in 2011. The construction of $100-million MRO facility is expected to begin in the second or third quarter of 2009. Boeing’s current investment plans in India include setting up of training centres for $75 million.
In addition to this, it has a $1.8-billion offset obligation , that came with the Air-India’s order.
11/02/09 Economic Times

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Categories: Foreign Feb 2009, Indian Aviation- In General Feb 2009