Airbus and Boeing slug it out for top slot in Indian aviation sector


Airbus and Boeing slug it out for top slot in Indian aviation sector


The battle between the world's top two plane manufactures for supremacy in the Indian skies is turning into a war. For now, Airbus has the advantage. 

The European plane maker has 196 of its commercial passenger aircraft flying in India, compared with Boeing's 160. 

Airbus' potential delivery backlog looks huge. It has signed an initial pact with IndiGo for 250 planes and has an earlier firm order for another 180. That, coupled with other orders takes its likely volumes over the next ten years to 516. The nation's newest local carriers, Tata Sons joint ventures Vistara and AirAsia India, have both picked Airbus as their initial choice. 


Boeing's visible backlog is much smaller at 59 planes, which include long-haul Dreamliners to Air India and Jet Airways as well as narrow-bodied 737Max planes to SpiceJet. There have been talks of an order for fifty 737Max from Jet, but that hasn't been announced. 

The US manufacturer is hoping for orders when airlines like Vistara expand. With India set to relax rules for local carriers to fly abroad, Boeing is also looking to sell more of its long-range wide-bodied planes, something that Airbus too is targeting. To win over customers,both aren't sparing any efforts, and undermining each other seems to be part of the marketing strategy. 
Globally, Seattle-based Boeing has more planes flying: some 10,000 compared with Toulouse, France-based Airbus' 8,192, show figures from their websites. But Airbus has more orders: it ended 2014 with a global order backlog of 6,386 planes, compared with Boeing's about 5,500. 


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