December 08, 2006	Friday	Ziqa'ad 16, 1427

NEW DELHI, Dec 7: Europe's Airbus said on Thursday it would double investment in India to at least $1 billion as it forecast the country would need 1,100 new planes over 20 years to meet soaring air travel demand.

The aircraft maker said it originally pledged to plough $500 million to 600 million into India over the next decade as part of a $2.5 billion deal to sell 43 aircraft to state-owned carrier.

“That investment has gone up to about a billion dollars... and it will be much more. This is just the beginning,” Airbus India president Kiran Rao said.

The commitment to spend on pilot training, engineering and other projects came as Airbus forecast India would need 1,100 new aircraft over the next two decades -- 935 passenger planes and 165 cargo -- worth $105 billion.

Of the passenger aircraft, Airbus said India would need 712 single aisle, 121 small twin aisle, 58 intermediate twin aisle and 44 large planes.

India now has a total of 198 planes in service.

Airbus added its forecast was “conservative” and improvements to India's decrepit aviation infrastructure could mean even faster demand for planes.

More than 50 per cent of the fleet in India is made up of Airbus planes and the aircraft maker has won 75 per cent of orders placed in 2006.

Boeing has grabbed 25 percent.

India was emerging as the world's fastest-growing nation for air travel demand, with average annual passenger traffic growth of 7.7 per cent forecast through to 2025, Airbus added.

Six Indian carriers, many of them budget, have taken flight in the past three years since the market was liberalised and more are readying for takeoff as airline promoters seek to lure an increasingly affluent middle class, estimated at 300 million in the country of more than one billion people.—AFP