The Hindu Business Line : Outsourcing volume depends on demand for its aircraft: Airbus

AIRBUS Industrie has said it will not dangle a carrot in the form of outsourcing of more work to Indian companies to sell aircraft to airlines in India. Instead, the decision to outsource will depend entirely on whether airlines in India buy more of its aircraft.

The Airbus press officer, Mr David Vellupillai, told visiting newspersons that the increase in the volume of work outsourced would be a "positive consequence to acquisition of aircraft from the company", dispelling references to media reports that it was a sequel to influencing the purchase of its aircraft.

The Toulouse-based EADS joint venture with BAE Systems, has already given $80 million (Rs 348 crore) worth of work to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Vidhyacom, a software company in Bangalore.

HAL currently makes the doors for the A320 family of aircraft, while Vidhyacom provides engineering services and software support in developing illustrations for the maintenance manual for the A380.

The amount and value of work Indian companies might bag from Airbus can be gauged from the number of aircraft Indian carriers are expected to buy from the Toulouse-based aircraft maker.

For example, Indian Airlines is planning to acquire 43 A320s worth $2 billion (Rs 8,707 crore) for which Government clearance is awaited, while Air India is set to buy 50 aircraft and half of them may go to Airbus.

Low cost carrier Air Deccan has already ordered 30 A320s worth $1.8 billion (Rs 7,836 crore) and Kingfisher Air has ordered 12 A320s worth $58 million (Rs 252 crore) each.

Following such a huge demand, Airbus itself has revised its estimates for India. It now expects India to buy 400 aircraft by 2019 and hopes to bag half of these orders. Airbus is in the race along with US aircraft maker Boeing to bag these orders.

Airbus is also studying the feasibility of setting up a pilot training centre in India. It will not necessarily be in Bangalore, he said.

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