Bangalore, Oct 1 (PTI): Bullish on its commercial aircraft sales in the country, Airbus plans to more than double headcount at its India engineering centre here over the next three years.
The centre that focuses on high-end engineering analysis and design, currently has 180 staff and this strength is expected to go up to 400 in 2013, Airbus President and CEO Tom Enders said today .
"This engineering centre has a great future", he said. "...the activities that are performed here are increasingly important, particularly modelling and simulation."
Enders, who was pleased at the increase in air traffic growth in India by 16 per cent this year, said the company was not only keen to maintain marketshare but also expand it.
According to company officials, some 180 Airbus aircraft in the fleets of Indian carriers represent nearly 60 per cent of the nation’s total.
Quoting an Airbus forecast, Enders said the demand for new aircraft in India over the next 20 years is projected to be about 1,000.Head of International Cooperation,India, South East & North East Asia, Srinivasan Dwarakanath said the cumulative turnover of work generated in India in the next 10 years was expected to be about USD one billion.
Airbus India President Kiran Rao said his company would deliver between 20 and 30 aircrafts per year in the next five years. From next year, Airbus expects "reordering phase" of Indian carriers after a "very quiet" 2008, 2009 and 2010.
"It's already started. We have started to see not so much ordering to buy but ordering to lease", he said, adding Indian carriers were expected to follow the leasing pattern in the next couple of years as they had been through difficult financial situation.Meanwhile, by the end of 2010, every Airbus A320 Family aircraft will be partly made in India.
Bangalore based Dynamatic Technologies, through partnership with Spirit AeroSystems (Europe) Ltd, will make all wing flap track beams for every variant of Airbus’ best-selling A320 Family aircraft.
The flaps on the wings move along high tech guiderails, known as flap track beams, which are an intricate assembly of tracks connected to the wing. The flaps are instrumental in controlling the speed, direction and balance of the aircraft.