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Another development of note has been the appearance of two Indian Subcontinent flows in the top 20 markets, one to Europe and one to the US. There has been high growth in the export of intermediate goods, such as textiles and industrial products, by air. This is a sign of India's economic expansion and its growing importance as a leading exporter of manufactured goods. While intermediate goods are likely to dominate in the future, higher value goods will also constitute a much larger share of the airfreight out of India. This will enable passenger airlines to extract more revenue from freight operations and will cause the freight business in India to flourish.
In addition, the Indian domestic market is forecast to develop in a similar manner to that of China, in terms of growth, but will differ in the types of goods carried. It is expected that general cargo will continue to be mainly carried in the belly of passenger aircraft, benefitting from increased capacity available as a result of the simultaneous growth of passenger traffic. However, a large share of India’s domestic growth will come from the express cargo market, which requires a dedicated freighter fleet. The express market will be largely driven by a strengthening economy, as already seen in China. It will be further accelerated by the increase in manufacturing and the growing number of Indian households that consume time sensitive, manufactured goods purchased on the Internet. The express market is expected to require more than 140 small or regional freighters by 2026. Meanwhile, international freight to and from India will grow as the economy and manufacturing develop in the country and as indigenous airlines begin to focus more on freighter operations. As such the dedicated Indian freighter fleet is expected to grow from three aircraft today to 45 in 2026.
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