Saturday, October 18, 2008
Usually, the rivalry between (Airbus and Boeing, ) two of the world's largest aircraft manufacturers is the centre piece of any airshow worldwide. One tries to outdo the other by squeezing as many orders. Nothing close to that was visible at the Hyderabad's India Aviation Airshow as it drew to a close.
Not a single new order was announced by the two majors though both declined to reduce their market forecast which expects India to buy another 1000 aircraft over the next twenty years. Possibly, who knows? But as of today that was "wishful thinking", as one top domestic airline executive told me.
Just to give a sense of the relationship between an airshow and aircraft orders - Nearly 700 aircraft, according to various reports, were announced at the Paris Airshow last year in June- including a fairly large one by India's Kingfisher Airlines (15 A350 XWB, 5 A340-500, 10 A330 and 20 A320 family aircraft). In November the same year, Dubai Airshow traded 350 aircraft orders valued US$69.7 billion. By July this year, at the Farnborough Airshow, orders worth US$64 billion were sealed.
In Hyderabad's Airbus instead said it has sold off Kingfisher's 5 A340 ultra long haul aircraft to other carriers as per its discussions with the airline.
There could be multiple reasons why there were no real orders clinched- or announced atleast. For one, global economic crisis means India's airlines are in no mood to continue their dream international expansion or domestic expansion as they have done over the past few years. Two, the Hyderabad airshow was the first civilian airshow (just over two dozen aircraft on display) in India- much similar to Dubai's 1989 start with 200 exhibits and 25 aircraft (its gone up to over 500 exhibits and 85 aircraft displayed now). And lastly it could also have been due to the absence of any international carriers- the usual suspects like Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad, and Dubai Aerospace Enterprise who have been ordering hundreds of aircraft were not in attendance here.
17/10/08 Tarun Shukla/Livemint
Not a single new order was announced by the two majors though both declined to reduce their market forecast which expects India to buy another 1000 aircraft over the next twenty years. Possibly, who knows? But as of today that was "wishful thinking", as one top domestic airline executive told me.
Just to give a sense of the relationship between an airshow and aircraft orders - Nearly 700 aircraft, according to various reports, were announced at the Paris Airshow last year in June- including a fairly large one by India's Kingfisher Airlines (15 A350 XWB, 5 A340-500, 10 A330 and 20 A320 family aircraft). In November the same year, Dubai Airshow traded 350 aircraft orders valued US$69.7 billion. By July this year, at the Farnborough Airshow, orders worth US$64 billion were sealed.
In Hyderabad's Airbus instead said it has sold off Kingfisher's 5 A340 ultra long haul aircraft to other carriers as per its discussions with the airline.
There could be multiple reasons why there were no real orders clinched- or announced atleast. For one, global economic crisis means India's airlines are in no mood to continue their dream international expansion or domestic expansion as they have done over the past few years. Two, the Hyderabad airshow was the first civilian airshow (just over two dozen aircraft on display) in India- much similar to Dubai's 1989 start with 200 exhibits and 25 aircraft (its gone up to over 500 exhibits and 85 aircraft displayed now). And lastly it could also have been due to the absence of any international carriers- the usual suspects like Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad, and Dubai Aerospace Enterprise who have been ordering hundreds of aircraft were not in attendance here.
17/10/08 Tarun Shukla/Livemint
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