By IANS,
New Delhi: Boeing Co, the world’s second largest commercial aircraft maker, Wednesday said it has not received any proposal from India’s cash-strapped national carrier Air India for deferring or cancelling its orders.
“We have not received any such proposals from Air India so far. But Jet Airways has rescheduled the delivery of two Boeing-333 aircraft,” Boeing India president Dinesh Keskar told IANS here on the sidelines of a Boeing presentation on the market outlook for the aviation sector.
Air India officials had earlier said the airline, struggling to cope with a cash crunch, may consider deferring some of the orders it has placed with plane makers Boeing and Airbus.
The airline has placed orders for 43 Boeing aircraft.
Projecting the market outlook for the aviation industry, Keskar said the medium and small-sized aircraft would be in high demand in coming years, while huge planes would not attract many buyers.
Talking about the country’s aviation sector, he said: “India does not need huge aircraft like Dreamliner 787, 777 and 747.”
He added that the test flight of Dreamliner 787, which was delayed due to fault in design, would take place soon.
The aircraft is already two years behind its original schedule.
Boeing officials said there were 73 cancellations of Dreamliner aircraft this year, of these 15 by Australian carrier Qantas.
Boeing has now received 866 orders from more that 50 airlines, officials said.