Aero India-Day 1 Boeing’s Great Expectations:As Passenger Traffic Grows, The NEO Becomes Obsolete
“We never participated in that bid,” Boeing India President Dinesh Keskar said after Airbus snagged an order for 180 A320s from IndiGo, including 150 new-engine-option A320neo Airbus aircraft. The expectation is that Boeing will announce this summer that it will not re-engine the 737, but launch a new successor in the 2015-2017 time frame, entering service between 2020 and 2022. “This will make [the NEO] obsolete,” Keskar told Show News. Boeing raised its expectations for airliner sales in India by about 15% (30% by value) this past August, stating that rising wealth in India would lead to more air travel by an emerging middle class. Indian carriers will buy about 1,150 airplanes for some $130 billion over the next 20 years, Boeing said, having previously forecast 1,000 jets for $100 billion. “Indian aviation will grow at 15% per year according to our forecast,” Keskar says. “52 million passengers in 2010 are expected to increase to 62 million this year.” Will consolidation a...