Aircraft maker Airbus has signed an agreement with engineering solutions firms QuEST Global and AXISCADES to provide a range of critical engineering services for all Airbus aircraft programmes, as tier-one suppliers.
At a press conference to announce the deal, Srinivasan Dwarakanath, President, Airbus Division India, said outside of Europe, India provides the maximum volume of engineering services to Airbus.
The three-year contract was won after a competitive bidding involving seven contenders. About 500 engineers will work on this project across dedicated development centres in Bengaluru. Sudhakar Gande, Vice-Chairman of AXISCADES, said the project comes at a time when the industry is looking at digital design services to cut production cost and time.
According to an Airbus forecast, the country will need over 1,600 new passenger and freighter aircraft in the next 20 years. This growth is expected to drive demand for skills in the fields of engineering, manufacturing and services, including maintenance, pilot training and MRO (maintenance, repair and operations). At present, Airbus has 510 firm orders for delivery to Indian carriers. Globally, the aircraft-maker has 6,869 total backlog orders.