Airbus exceeded the $500 million mark in annual procurement from India in 2015 and added that it planned to surpass the $2 billion in cumulative procurement across civil and defence segment by 2020.
According to a company press release, Airbus India grew 15 percent in 2015 with its overall procurement from India going north by 16 times in the last decade. "Today, every Airbus commercial aircraft being produced is partly Made-in-India," Airbus India said.
"Indian suppliers are a cornerstone of our globalisation strategy. Many of the projects with our Indian partners have been very successful and we aim to further strengthen these relationships in the future," said Klaus Richter, chief procurement officer at Airbus Group and Airbus.
The company said this was the first time any foreign aerospace and defence original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in India has crossed the half-a-billion dollar mark.
Airbus India directly engages with over 6,000 people across more than 45 suppliers for various aspects of its leading aircraft including A380, A350 XWB, A320 Family, A330, C295W, A400M, Eurofighter, Tiger and NH90.
The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) makes half of the entire A320 family forward passenger doors produced worldwide, according to the press release.
"If our proposals 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," said Pierre de Bausset, president and managing director of Airbus Group India.
Dynamatic Technologies, a Bangalore-based company, makes flap track beams for the A320 family on a global single source basis. Last year, the company was awarded the contract to manufacture them for the A330 family as well. Flap track beams are the assemblies on which the wings extend and retract every time the aircraft takes-off and lands.
Wipro, the Indian information technology (IT) major, received technology transfer from an Airbus Defence and Space JV company in Spain to manufacture more than 8,000 aerospace actuators per year, which go on platforms such as A400M, CN235 and C295W, while SEFEE India designs, develops, manufactures and tests complete electrical harness systems for aircraft like A400M and several helicopter types.
Another Indian IT major, Infosys, is tasked with providing SAP development and maintenance services.
