Boeing India President Dinesh A Keskar today opined that it was needed to hike passenger fares to cope up with rising fuel prices. To protect the market, the passengers fares need to be hiked by around 15 per cent, Mr Keskar said in a press conference on the sidelines of the 5-day of third International India Aviation 2012 here.
“We will continue to have this massive losses being faced by the carriers if the fares are not increased and difficult to sustain the health of the industry,” he expressed. The global aviation industry’s profit forecast has been steadily coming down due to fuel prices hike , he said and added the hike issue really will be a big issue among the airlines and it was needed to find out a solution for it.
About 33,500 new airplanes valued at 4 trillion dollars will be needed globally in the next 20 years and out of this India will account for 150 billion dollars with 1,320 airplanes, Mr Keskar said. Asia Pacific offered growth opportunities for the aviation market with 37 per cent of future sales coming out of Asia, he said. In 2006, Boeing and Air India signed a contract for 68 Boeing, the single largest commerical airplance order in India’s civil aviation history, worth more than 11 billion dollars, while in 2010, Boeing and SpiceJet announced an order for 30 Boeing Next-Generation 737-800s valued at about 2.3 billion dollars, he said. Boeing is also looking at ways to partner with several small and medium sized enterprises across India, he said. Boeing, in partnership with Air India, is also building a maintenance repair and overhaul facility in Nagpur, he added. UNI