Joost Van Der Heijden
Airbus once again reiterated that India is a key market for the company
and stated that the Airbus market share of new aircraft orders in India
is over 70 per cent. Addressing a press conference on the second day of
India Aviation, Airbus officials stated that keeping this in view, the company
is strengthening its six pillars in the country. “We continue to see growth in
India both in short-term and long-term. Since 2005, we have sold 500 aircraft
in India and have over 70 per cent market share. We see that there will be
additional requirements,” said, Joost Van Der Heijden, Head of Marketing,
India, Airbus.
According to the company, India’s annual passenger traffic growth which
is 7.2 per cent is well above the growth in Asia Pacific (5.9 per cent) and
world average of 4.8 per cent. By 2030, India’s passenger fleet will be more
than triple to about 1,180 aircraft. The new passenger aircraft will include
646 single aisles like the A320 and A320neo family, 308 twin aisles like the
A350 XWB and A330, and 66 very large aircraft such as the A380. “Despite
the challenges, India’s growth in domestic air travel will reach even higher
growth rates of nearly 10 per cent annually, making it one the fastest growing
aviation markets anywhere in the world.”
The officials spoke in detail about the company’s six pillars of cooperation
in India-Airbus Engineering Centre India (AECI), pilot and maintenance
training, aerostructure design and build, research and technology and other
initiatives including spares centre, MRO, etc. Airbus relationship with India
began with the sale of A300 35 years back and was followed by collaboration
with HAL, which is still going strong. Over the years, Airbus has had
partnerships with many private Indian companies as well. And today, half of
all A320 forward doors and all flap track beams are manufactured in India.
The company has a long-standing partnership with HAL to produce 50 per
cent of forward passenger doors for all A320 family aircraft. Likewise, it has
a partnership with Dynamatis for assembly of flap-track beams for the A320
family aircraft; and with Tata to produce composite parts for A350 XWB programme.
Speaking about the engineering capabilities of India, Srinivasan
Dwarkanath, Vice President, Industrial Cooperation, Asia-Pacific and Middle
East, said that many complex components are being made in India. “Every
A320 today is partly made in India.”
EADS is looking for a partner for establishing a maintenance, repair and
overhaul (MRO) facility in the country for Airbus. “We have met 85 to 90 per
cent of the offset clause and we are now working with different private companies
in India trying to ensure that MRO in India will be materialised soon,”
said Dwarkanath.
“India produces 3,000 to 4,000 engineers every year. The AECI in Bangalore
has a become a regional hub and personnel from 23 airlines have
already undergone training at the centre. The AECI has employed 270 local
engineers working in high end analysis and design on all Airbus products.
The centre is expected to grow to 450 in the next three years. The second
pilot training centre has been setup in the National Capital Region in cooperation
with CAE and Interglobe to complement the existing facility in Bangalore.
Together, these centres will have the capacity to train up to 5,000 pilots
and maintenance engineers every year.”
On being asked whether the present critical state of the airlines in India
will affect their present and future orders, Heijden said, “We see Indian carriers
as our partners and keep discussing how we can help. And in fact the
growing fleet will help airlines recover and grow. Further India is a young
market and the new aircraft burn less fuel, thus lowering the cost of the airlines
operations.” With regard to the orders for A380 from Kingfisher, Heijdan
said that the order is still there.
