Hyderabad: Boeing does not expect any significant delays in its 737 MAX aircraft deliveries to India due to the problems following the recent Alaska Airlines 737 MAX-9 plane incident, Darren Hulst, vice president of commercial marketing of Boeing said on Friday.

Hulst while speaking at the Wings India event on Friday here said, “We don’t anticipate any meaningful delay in aircraft delivery due to the B737 MAX 9 crisis. Our focus is on improving quality…and so our focus is not on numbers necessarily, but it’s on achieving the best aircraft every single time…”

He added that the American aircraft manufacturer has installed an additional layer of quality checks in place to ensure that all future planes meet the highest standard of quality.

This comes a few days after Boeing said that it would bring in an outside party to assess its production practices.

Inspection of Boeing planes has been enhanced after the door plug of the Alaska Airlines craft blew off mid-air when it was flying from Portland to California (in the US), forcing the plane to make an emergency landing minutes after take-off.

A few days before this, an international operator, on December 28, had discovered a bolt with a missing nut while performing routine maintenance in their Boeing aircraft. As a result of this, Boeing recommended all the airlines inspect their B737 Max fleet.

The aircraft manufacturer has been struggling to restore passengers’ confidence after the two crashes involving planes of the 737 Max group crashed in 2018 and 2019. Many passengers lost their lives in the crash, forcing authorities to ground the 737 Max fleet globally for over 18 months.

According to Boeing’s estimations, airlines based in South Asian countries, including India, will add more than 2,700 aircraft over 20 years — quadrupling the region’s current fleet.

“The South Asia market is expected to quadruple its fleet over the next two decades to meet passenger demand. Boeing forecasts the region will require 37,000 pilots and 38,000 maintenance technicians over the next 20 years, driven primarily from growing demand in India,” the company said.

In its forecast, Boeing said that the South Asia region will become the fastest-growing commercial aviation market with more than 8% annual traffic growth over the next 20 years.

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According to Boeing’s Commercial Market Outlook (CMO), to meet rising passenger and cargo demand, South Asian carriers are projected to quadruple the size of their fleets over the next two decades.

“Carriers will require more than 2,700 new airplanes to address growth and fleet replacement,” the aircraft manufacturer said.

Hulst said that the Indian low-cost carriers continue to stimulate demand and connect emerging regions with low fares, holding nearly a 90% share of all domestic seats in the region. “…This reflects the rapid pace of the region’s recovery and economic activity, as traffic and capacity now exceed pre-pandemic levels,” he added.

Long-haul traffic and capacity to and from India and South Asia will lead the way globally, relative to 2019, as nonstop services to North America, Europe, East Asia, and Oceania continue to be added, Boeing said.

“Strong economic growth and confidence in the commercial aviation market have led to record orders for new, more efficient airplanes in India,” the company added.