Airbus growing strongly in India, say Van Wersch
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to officiate at the Tata-Airbus delivery to the Ministry of Defence of a military transport aircraft from the Vadodara assembly line in the second half of this year, Airbus President International and executive committee member Wouter Van Wersch told a press conference at the Singapore Airshow on 4Feb.
The Prime Minister is expected to officiate at the delivery of the C295, a military transportation aircraft, he said of the first “Made in India” project from the Vadodara facility, a joint venture between Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and Airbus.
Seventy per cent of the components in making of C295 were sourced from India and 30 percent imported, including the engine from Connecticut-headquartered Pratt & Whitney.
The C295 line was inaugurated last October and is expected to deliver 40 aircraft to the Indian Air Force out of the 56-aircraft contract with the Defence Ministry. “That’s a big step. All the others will be coming from the India assembly line,” he said.
Sixteen aircrafts of the 56-aircraft contract with the Defence Ministry have been delivered from Airbus’ Spanish facility.
In the future, Vadodara facility is also expected to supply aircrafts to the regional markets, added Van Wersch.
“We have been growing in India extremely strongly over the last years, and we have made India one of our key centres in terms of engineering and in terms of digital,” he said, adding that Airbus’ Bangalore operation is being relocated to a bigger campus.
He also underlined the strong and growing relationship with India and the Indian talent, adding that a lot of training is being done in the country including the Delhi office. Fiinews.com
