No nation in the world is buying more planes than India. Here’s why
No nation in the world is buying as many airplanes as India. Its largest airlines have ordered nearly 1,000 jets in 2023, committing tens of billions of dollars to a spending spree that is unparalleled in aviation. In New Delhi, Indira Gandhi International Airport will be ready for 109m passengers in 2024, as it prepares to become the world’s second busiest, behind Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States. And this is happening in a vast country still heavily reliant on trains – with 20 journeys by rail for every one by air. The enormous aviation build-up, with a surge of investment behind it, has pride of place in India’s case for a greater standing on the world stage. As it moves up the ranks of the world’s biggest economies, India is scrambling to meet the expanding ambitions of its ascendant middle class. Its airports present highly visible achievements. Air travel remains out of the financial reach of most Indians. An estimated 3% of the country’s population flies on a regular basis. But in a nation of 1.4b people, that percentage represents 42m – executives, students and engineers who yearn to get quickly from here to there inside India’s borders, and to gain easier access to destinations beyond, for both business and vacation. Kapil Kaul, CE of CAPA India, an advisory firm focused on aviation, calls “the next two to three years critical for achieving the quality of growth that India desires and deserves”. Growth has so far been profitless. Now Indian aviation must prove it can make money. The effects of the spending spree should redound across India’s economy. Cargo comes with passenger traffic, and foreign investment tends to follow closely behind, Kaul said. Arrivals at the international terminal in Indira Gandhi airport are greeted by a wall of giant sculptural hands, their fingers and palms folded into the signifying shapes of the Buddha’s gestures, looking both ancient and futuristic. In 2012, when they were installed, 30m passengers passed through the airport. By the time the airport has expanded to its new capacity, another one will have been built from scratch on the other side of the city.<br/>
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No nation in the world is buying more planes than India. Here’s why
No nation in the world is buying as many airplanes as India. Its largest airlines have ordered nearly 1,000 jets in 2023, committing tens of billions of dollars to a spending spree that is unparalleled in aviation. In New Delhi, Indira Gandhi International Airport will be ready for 109m passengers in 2024, as it prepares to become the world’s second busiest, behind Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States. And this is happening in a vast country still heavily reliant on trains – with 20 journeys by rail for every one by air. The enormous aviation build-up, with a surge of investment behind it, has pride of place in India’s case for a greater standing on the world stage. As it moves up the ranks of the world’s biggest economies, India is scrambling to meet the expanding ambitions of its ascendant middle class. Its airports present highly visible achievements. Air travel remains out of the financial reach of most Indians. An estimated 3% of the country’s population flies on a regular basis. But in a nation of 1.4b people, that percentage represents 42m – executives, students and engineers who yearn to get quickly from here to there inside India’s borders, and to gain easier access to destinations beyond, for both business and vacation. Kapil Kaul, CE of CAPA India, an advisory firm focused on aviation, calls “the next two to three years critical for achieving the quality of growth that India desires and deserves”. Growth has so far been profitless. Now Indian aviation must prove it can make money. The effects of the spending spree should redound across India’s economy. Cargo comes with passenger traffic, and foreign investment tends to follow closely behind, Kaul said. Arrivals at the international terminal in Indira Gandhi airport are greeted by a wall of giant sculptural hands, their fingers and palms folded into the signifying shapes of the Buddha’s gestures, looking both ancient and futuristic. In 2012, when they were installed, 30m passengers passed through the airport. By the time the airport has expanded to its new capacity, another one will have been built from scratch on the other side of the city.<br/>
