There is a lot of buzzes about India at the Paris Air Show, the world’s largest air show, which alternates with Farnborough in Britain, is at Le Bourget for the first time in four years after the 2021 edition fell victim to the pandemic. This comes after IndiGo’s monumental order for 500 Airbus narrowbody jets, billed as the largest order ever placed with Airbus. In February, Air India also placed orders for 470 aircraft from both Airbus and Boeing. In an exclusive with ANI, Jawed Ashraf, Ambassador of India to France and Monaco said, “There is a lot of buzz at the Paris Air Show about India. This comes from the announcement by Indigo Airlines and what is billed as the largest order for Airbus. This follows the order that Air India had placed both on Airbus and Boeing for 470 aircraft just in February.”
The buying spree by Indian airlines adds to signs of strong global demand for civilian aircraft as travel rebounds from the pandemic and airlines look to reduce their environmental impact with more fuel-efficient new models.
“Everyone recognizes that the aviation sector is growing at a very rapid pace. India is one of the top three aviation markets, the number of airports has doubled from 74 in the course of just nine years and the traffic at major airports is growing at double-digit rates. Now, this is the size and the market; therefore, we have placed more orders for aircraft, and there are aircraft flying in India. We hope that this will also translate into India becoming a major aviation hub and becoming a major carrier for international traffic and re-emerge as one of the major aviation service providers in the world,” said Ashraf.
Air India’s deal includes 250 planes from Airbus and 220 from Boeing. The Airbus part comprises 210 A320neo and A321neo narrowbody jets and 40 A350 widebodies, while the Boeing deal is for 190 737 MAX, 20 787 Dreamliners and 10 mini-jumbo 777X. Ambassador Ashraf also said that French companies are developing the aviation sector from an industrial and servicing standpoint in India.
“Safran, the French company that makes engines, both military and civil aviation engines has just announced that it is going to set up its largest global MRO which is a maintenance repair overhaul facility in Hyderabad. We will serve not just the engines of Indian aircraft, but also the entire region,” said the Indian envoy.
Moreover, there are many companies including French companies that have started manufacturing components, advanced systems for aircraft and engines and some of these require very advanced technologies and Safran inaugurated two plants last year to manufacture engine parts in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Also, Airbus and Boeing are manufacturing various components and systems and subsystems designing, doing research and development and engineering works in India.
“So there’s a lot of value addition in the aviation sector. From the perspective of design, development, engineering, and manufacturing, we tend to focus a lot on the complete platforms. But I think there is a lot of value addition in developing manufacturing specific components, subsystems parts during the design and engineering,” said Ashraf.
Speaking about defence aviation, he said that India is one of the major military powers in the world and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for Atma Nirbhar Bharat has provided further impetus to realise the goal of indigenisation of the defence sector.
“Today, there is a lot of interest from all defence aviation companies, and we’ve seen that in the Paris Air Show not just the French companies, but companies from everywhere else that are interested in setting up manufacturing design and development and engineering facilities in India,” said Ashraf.
Source ANI
