The Airbus Group has produced over $500 million worth of aero-structures, components, materials, and services in India last year.

The defence and aerospace company said that it has set its sights on achieving a $2-billion aggregate value of procurement from India by 2020, covering both civil and defence.

According to a statement from the Group, the annual procurement mark from India has exceeded $500 million last year, from over 45 suppliers, highlighting the company's initiative towards ‘Make in India’.

“Indian suppliers are a cornerstone of our globalisation strategy," stated Airbus Chief Procurement Officer Klaus Richter, in the statement. “Many of the projects with our Indian partners have been very successful and we aim to further strengthen these relationships," he added.

Terming it a first for any foreign aerospace and defence original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in India, the Airbus Group said the procurement represents a 15 per cent growth over 2014.

Overall, Airbus Group’s procurement from India has grown 16 times in the last decade.

Pierre de Bausset, President and MD, Airbus Group India, said if the company's proposal to produce the C295W military transporter in India, "together with Tata and military helicopters along with Mahindra materialise, we will help set-up system integration and final assembly lines which will spawn an Indian defence supplier base that will be second to none globally."

The company said many people are engaged in providing engineering and IT services, aero-structures, detail parts and systems, materials and cabins to the Group for several of its platforms, including A380, A350 XWB, A320 Family, A330, C295W, A400M, Eurofighter, Tiger and NH90. Around 80 per cent of the Group’s nearly 500 direct employees in India are engineers.

‘Made in India’

The Group has said every Airbus commercial aircraft that is currently produced is partly 'Made in India'.

Detailing some of its Indian partners, the company said Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) makes half of the entire A320 Family forward passenger doors produced worldwide, while Dynamatic Technologies makes flap track beams (assemblies on which the wings extend and retract every time the aircraft takes-off and lands) for the A320 Family on a global single source basis.

The latter was given the contract last year to manufacture them for the A330 Family.

Mahindra Aerospace is on contract from Premium Aerotec, an Airbus Group company, to supply more than a million aero-components per year.

Aequs recently inaugurated a dedicated machining facility in Belagavi, adding to a pre-existing sheet metal, assembly and forging facility and special process operations for Airbus commercial aircraft programmes.

Tata Advanced Materials provides composite parts for the wing for the A350 XWB and A320 programmes, while another Tata Group company, TAL Manufacturing solutions, has partnered with RUAG Aero-structures to supply over 500 sheet metal and machined parts and sub-assemblies for the A320 programme.

While Wipro has received technology transfer from an Airbus Defence and Space joint venture company in Spain to manufacture more than 8,000 aerospace actuators per year, Infosys provides SAP development and maintenance services and Tech Mahindra provides consulting services on quality and business support, the company added.

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