Airbus expects India’s commercial aircraft fleet to nearly triple to around 2,200 planes over the next decade, supported by rapid traffic growth, airport expansion and rising airline capacity, Jürgen Westermeier, president and managing director, Airbus India and South Asia, said at Wings India 2026 in Hyderabad on Thursday.
“India is definitely a key market for Airbus, where more than 10 percent of our yearly production are delivered to and it will even Increase in future,” Westermeier said at his first Wings India press conference.
India currently operates around 850 commercial aircraft. According to Airbus’s India market outlook, passenger traffic is projected to grow at about 8.9 percent annually over the next decade, with trips per capita rising from about 0.13 today to roughly 0.29 by 2035. India, now the fifth-largest aviation market, is projected to become the third-largest within 10 years. Annual originating passenger trips are expected to reach about 400 million over the period.
Indian airlines have more than 1,700 aircraft on backlog, with roughly 72 percent of those orders placed with Airbus, the company said. Airbus alone has about 1,250 aircraft on order from Indian customers for delivery over the next decade.
“This is the biggest backlog Airbus has with any other country,” Westermeier said.
Explaining the implied delivery flow from that order book, he said: “Today, we have 1,250 aircraft on order for the next 10 years. So the mathematics is relatively easy. It will be an average of around 120 aircraft coming from Airbus to India every year, so more than two per week. And to give you another exciting number, as it is not fully faced, we will have a peak of around 150 aircraft in one year as a maximum delivery.”
He described India as Airbus’s fastest-growing national market by demand. “You can clearly say, and therefore, I'm happy to be here that in the sense of growing, India is the most important market for us,” he said, adding, “Developed countries like US or Europe, there we are in replacement cycles, but not in growth cycles anymore.”
Airbus expects the number of operational airports in India to rise from about 150 today to around 200 within a decade, alongside continued government-led infrastructure investment.
Fleet growth is also expected to be accompanied by a shift toward larger aircraft types, including higher-capacity narrowbodies and more widebody jets, which will lift total passenger seat capacity faster than fleet numbers. Air cargo capacity of Indian carriers is projected to more than triple over the same period to above 5,000 kilotonnes annually.
Westermeier said India’s expanding middle class, estimated at about 38 percent of the population, is a key structural driver of aviation demand.
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Airbus expects India’s maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) market to grow to roughly $9.5 billion within the next decade from about $3 billion today, driven by fleet expansion and aircraft ageing. “With the growing fleet, the growing flights, we will also see a strong increase in MRO demand,” Westermeier said.
Heavy maintenance demand is expected to more than triple due to the high volume of aircraft inductions. India already has base maintenance capacity serving domestic and neighbouring markets, with additional investments and airline-led facilities under development, Airbus said. The company is supporting local MRO players with training, tooling, materials and consulting partnerships.
Airbus also expects higher spending on digital tools and predictive maintenance systems by Indian airlines over the next decade as fleets scale up and operations become more complex.
Airbus estimates India will require about 35,000 pilots and 34,000 technicians by 2035, roughly three times current workforce levels, to support the expanded fleet.
Training demand is expected to grow more than two-fold over the next decade. India currently has more than 40 flying schools, over 50 basic maintenance training schools and more than 30 full flight simulators, but additional training capacity will be required, according to Airbus.
The company operates pilot and maintenance training facilities in India and has joint training partnerships with airline and airport groups for simulator and type training.
Airbus said its India sourcing model has evolved from engineering and digital services to complex aerostructure manufacturing and final assembly. Indian suppliers have industrialised more than 7,000 aircraft parts, including complex and safety-critical components such as A220 aircraft doors and structural beams. The company said there is now no Airbus aircraft flying without Indian-made parts or engineering input.
Airbus is setting up a final assembly line in Karnataka for H125 helicopters, with inauguration scheduled next month, and expects the first India-assembled C295 aircraft to be delivered in the third quarter of 2026. Together, these assembly lines are expected to support up to 10,000 jobs in the aviation sector.
On supplier ecosystem development, Westermeier said aerospace manufacturing is capital intensive and requires high certification standards, and policy support would help accelerate localisation.
Responding to a question, he added that supplier ramp-up remains on track despite industry-wide pressures. “More than 99 percent of our suppliers are fully online, fully following and out of this ramp up plan,” he said.
First Published: Jan 30, 2026, 12:57
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