India's widebody fleet stagnant for past 15 yrs

India's widebody aircraft fleet has remained stagnant over the past 15 years, in contrast to the expanding fleets of carriers like Emirates, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines.

- DEEPAK PATEL

This disparity has enabled these foreign airlines to efficiently transport a substantial volume of international passengers to and from India through their one-stop flight services. "From 2010 until now, there has been a virtual freeze of long and ultra-long haul capacity by Indian carriers, despite India's GDP increasing 2.5x and GDP per capita by 2.2x. India is perhaps the only high-potential market with such strategic capacity conBEHIND PEERS 601 Indian carrriers' widebody aircraft fleet compared to foreign carriers Indian carriers Emirates Qatar Airways Singapore Airlines 300 260 -126 -105 216 200 133 100 672024 -46 2009 Source: CAPA India, planespotters.net straints," Kapil Kaul, chief executive officer (CEO) and director, CAPA India, said on Thursday.

Indian carriers currently operate 67 widebody planes, which is less than 10 per cent of their total fleet. In contrast, Emirates and Qatar Airways operate 260 and 216 widebody planes, respectively.