Boeing Max deliveries are going to taper off. What about Akasa and AI Express?
Boeing Max planes, market leader IndiGo awaits delivery of new and inspected Airbus 320 neo planes with P&W engines. Boeing has guaranteed Max deliveries till December, an executive at one of the airlines operating the plane said. “The delivery outlook beyond December 2024 looks grim, and may impact our expansion plans in 2025," the executive said on condition of anonymity.
The bankruptcies of Jet Airways and GoFirst, followed by the grounding of many aircraft by IndiGo and SpiceJet, and the upcoming delay in aircraft deliveries will set back India's aviation industry, analysts said. Slower fleet expansion may also bump up airfares in 2025, even as more Indians take to air every year. Indian airlines carried a record 152 million passengers in 2023, a 23% increase from 2022 and a 5% increase from 2019.
As per the latest data from Directorate General of Civil Aviation for 2024, the domestic air traffic from January to May rose 4% on year to 13.8 million passengers. “This (reduced aircraft delivery) is set to impact the aviation market negatively. Fares will go up, and that is set to impact passenger growth, negatively.
For instance, a return flight to Kochi from Delhi is more expensive than flying to Vietnam... So, this is set to impact domestic tourism too," said Mark Martin, CEO at Martin Consulting, an aviation consulting firm. According to a second executive, Air India Express and Akasa have been lucky so far.
This is because some Chinese airlines decided not to take delivery of the planes they ordered, and Boeing diverted them to India. "However, this would only cover the first 50 Max deliveries for Air India Express and around 25 Max deliveries for Akasa. Beyond that, it will be dependent on supply chains and the
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