'Every commercial Airbus aircraft flying going forward will be partly made in India'

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NEW DELHI: For Airbus,
IndiGo
and
Air India
are now among the top three airline customers globally with the maximum backlog or aircraft yet to be delivered, according to the aerospace major's EVP (sales, commercial aircraft) Benoît de Saint-Exupéry.
It has to deliver 916 and 344 aircraft, the majority of which are narrow body, to IndiGo and AI, respectively, said an official. Malaysia-based AirAsia Group, which once used to run a JV airline in India with the Tatas, is in the second spot at 393 planes.
In Delhi for the IATA AGM, Benoît had some good news for airlines who are getting increasingly frustrated with delivery delays (including from Boeing too) due to supply chain issues grappling the industry since 2020 that have affected everything in the aviation ecosystem from planes to engines to seats, components and spares.
'We are seeing the first signs of stability in supply chain. We are now back to the pre-Covid level of producing 60 A320 family of single aisle planes every month and hope to increase this number to 75 by 2027.
We have the orders and are ramping up production to step on the delivery, and every commercial (Airbus) aircraft that's flying going forward will be partly made in India,' Benoît said.
Asked if the order book for 1,750 planes from IndiGo and AI makes a case for India to get a final assembly line (FAL), Benoît said: 'We will have final assembly lines on the other products (one for H125 helicopters for its civil range and other for C295 military aircraft).
On commercial aircraft side, we are looking at expanding our footprint with industry here in India. Sourcing from India has much value than a FAL for commercial aircraft and we are constantly increasing the same from here.
Airbus sourcing from India was $500 millon in 2020. We crossed the $1 billion mark in 2023 and last year we were at $1.4 billion. We will reach $ 2 billion before the end of the decade.'
Rémi Maillard, president of Airbus India and MD of south Asia region, said: 'India is not only a market for us.
It has become a strategic resource and industrial base for Airbus. We are investing in the country. The $500-million that we were procuring from India in 2020 was mostly engineering and digital services. From 2023, it is actually more hardware, flying parts that digital services. Not only we are going at a very fast pace, but we are now manufacturing critical components of aircraft and helicopters in the country.
'
India is now the biggest market for Airbus.
'We're very proud to count our two main customers in India — IndiGo and Air India — as part of the biggest backlog in Airbus,' Benoît, who signed the MoU with IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers for converting 30 A350s into a firm order at the IATA AGM, said. IndiGo, the biggest operator of the best-selling A320 family of planes, has ordered 1,400 Airbus aircraft — 1,340 A320 family and 60 wide body A350.
Air India has 300 A320 family and 50 A350s on order.
About delays in aircraft deliveries due to supply chain issues, Benoît said: 'When it comes to the stability of our setup, yes the industry is late. Now we are seeing the first signs of stability in the supply chain. But you, you never quite rest because, as we all know, the situation can change quite quickly nowadays. The objective is to bring back some resilience in the supply chain. The pandemic has taught us to be much more intrusive, If I may say so, into the supply chain to anticipate the issues and work with our suppliers to find solutions.
'
Given the wait for new aircraft, both AI and IndiGo have decided to keep their older A320ceos for much longer than they had originally anticipated. 'There's a trend with airlines in general to keep the asset longer because because they need they need more (capacity),' Benoît said.
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