Airbus has awarded the contract to Aequs Aerospace for the supply of over 100,000 titanium machined parts for its A320neo (new engine option) programme.
Aequs is the only company which will be providing titanium parts for Airbus A320neo from India and it will be for teh first time from the country, Aequs officials said.
They said these parts will be delivered to the Airbus plant in Toulouse, France, where they will be assembled onto the pylon structure, used to mount engines onto the aircraft wing.
The contract positions Aequs as a “significant” Tier-1 supplier for Airbus. India is a strategic country for Airbus not only because of market size, but also because of the access to skills and resources, Airbus division in India President Srinivasan Dwarakanath told reporters here on Thursday.
Stating that Airbus is growing strength to strength and is significantly contributing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, he said, “this contract is a testimony to our commitment in developing the aerospace ecosystem in the country.”
Aequs will perform the work at its 100,000 sq ft aerospace machining facility at the special economic zone in Belagavi, which was purpose-built to manufacture aerospace machined components for Airbus.
Commenting on the contract Aequs Chairman and CEO Aravind Melligeri said “We have a long-standing relationship with Airbus and have produced detail machined parts for its single aisle, long range, and large aircraft since 2009, including wing leading edge subassemblies for its A380.”
Speaking about Airbus sourcing, Dwarakanath said, “In last ten years our sourcing volume has grown 16 times. last year we were little over $500 million in terms of sourcing from India. When PM visited our facility last year our CEO has committed that cumulative volume over the next five years (2020) will be more than $2 billion.”
Airbus has 55 per cent fleet share in the country and has more than 70 per cent order share.
Pointing out that 2016 is the year of neo, Dwarakanath said from the mid of this year Airbus will be delivering on an average one aircraft every week into India over the next 10 years. Dwarakanath said every Airbus aircraft that comes out ofthe company’s assembly line is partly made in India. Airbus has a backlog of 528 aircrafts to deliver in the country.
Outlining Airbus cooperation strategy in India, Dwarakanath said it is based on the four pillars’ namely engineering, customer services, Aerospace supplier partnerships, R&D and innovation.
Airbus has 400 engineers at engineering center in Bengaluru, and about 45 suppliers across the country.
Noting that there is significant opportunity for the growth of aviation sector in the country, Dwarakanath said domestic growth over the next twenty years is expected to be around 9.3 per cent.
He said “This demand will generate a need for 1,600 new passenger aircraft in the country that is significant compared to what we have today, about 400 aircrafts.”
Speaking about the global aviation market, Dwarakanath said “Every fifteen years air traffic doubles globally, for the next twenty years we are expecting a growth of 4.6 per cent, that will generate a demand for about 32,000 aircrafts, two thirds of that will be single-aisel, that’s a market value of about $5 trillion”.
He said in 1970 and 90’s the growth was in Americas and then moved to Europe, adding, “Now is the era for Asia, Asia Pacific. Over the next twenty years there will be significant growth in Asia Pacific.”
