'India, China will be among core buyers of jet engines'

New Delhi, July 6 (PTI) India and China would be among ountries which would constitute the largest market for aircraft engines and their after-sale services, totalling a whopping USD 1,700 billion, over the next two decades, a major manufacturer of jet engines has said. Delivery of 1,49,000 engines have been forecast over the next 20 years to power 68,000 new aircraft and business jets, London-based airplane engine maker Rolls Royce said in its latest market outlook. While the engines themselves would be worth USD 975 billion, another USD 700 billion has been estimated as the cost of after-market services, it said. Noting that fastest growing economies would be in Asia and Middle East, the study said domestic aviation markets in India and China would see a 9.8 per cent and 7.9 per cent per annum growth respectively. Compared to this, mature markets of Europe and North America would grow by 2.5 per cent per year. "Asia-Pacific will be by far the largest market for commercial aircraft" where airlines will require nearly 4,000 twin-aisled planes or 44 per cent of the global deliveries. The North American Airlines would also urgently need to replace their large older fleet, the Rolls Royce study said. Observing that world airlines were investing heavily in more fuel-efficient planes to cut average fuel burn per seat, it said this was pushing up demand for larger aircraft or twin-aisles like Boeing 787, B-777, Airbus A-330 and A-350. "We predict deliveries of 8,020 twin-aisle aircraft from 2012-31, plus another 790 new-build freighter aircraft. 19,900 engines are needed to power these aircraft, worth USD 450 billion," it said, adding that the engine market for these planes represented 54 per cent of the total commercial jet market. The study said though the North American business jet market was the largest as "traditionally 70-80 per cent of their aircraft" were delivered there, customers in Asia were "increasingly buying them". PTI