In the face of financial woes creeping across its airline sector, Airbus is sticking to upbeat forecasts for aircraft demand in India. The European planemaker recently said in Singapore that there is a lot of growth. The Indian aviation industry lost a combined $2 billion last year and all but unlisted IndiGo – an Airbus customer – lost money, complaining of high taxes on jet fuel, expensive airports and subsidies to state carrier Air India.
Kingfisher, controlled by liquor baron Vijay Mallya and once India’s second-biggest carrier, has not flown since October 2012 after operations were halted due to a cash crunch. Whenever a market is growing rapidly with new entrants, you have a risk of some people stumbling and others will move ahead, the planemaker stated.
The Indian market has been a two-edged sword….The highest fuel cost anywhere in the world is in India. That of course puts a dampener on traffic, it said. It needs more infrastructure support from the government and it needs the government to let the open market work and not try to keep propping up their national carrier with billions of rupees in terms of support.
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