Airbus to set up global innovation cell in Bangalore

 

Bangalore will conceive new generation Airbus aircraft, the Toulouse, France-based aircraft manufacturer Airbus Industrie has announced.

It will set up its global innovation cell in India. The Airbus President and CEO, Mr Tom Enders, said , “This cell will not just be based in India but also be headed by an Indian. We see the future of aviation industry lies in Asia.”

Although he did not announce the name of the new head, it is believed that Mr Ardhendu Pathak (earlier with GE Industrial Solutions) will be heading the new cell.

Adding to Mr Enders' statement, Mr Kiran Rao, Executive Vice-President (Marketing and Contracts), Airbus, said that the new innovation cell will start working from next year, from the existing engineering facility at Bangalore. “It will work on next generation aircraft for 2030, 2040, 2050 and so on,” Mr Rao said.

Asia-Pacific market

Setting up a global innovation cell in India is part of Airbus' bid to tap the bigger potential of the Asia-Pacific market. It is estimated that the APAC market will require 9,160 aircraft in the next 20 years.

At the same time, India, along with China and other emerging markets, is estimated to witness 6 per cent yearly growth in revenue passenger per kilometre (RPK). Nearly 6 billion people in these regions undertook air travel in 2011.

Echoing the same sentiments, Mr John Leahy, Chief Operating officer (Customers), Airbus, said that emerging economies such as India and China will drive strong travel growth.

At present, the per capita air travel in India is around 0.01-0.1, so there is lot of potential to grow. With such potential in entire region, Asia-Pacific region will account 32 per cent (highest among all the regions) of total delivery.

INDIA PLANS

Mr Rao said efforts are on to increase the headcount at the Bangalore offshore Engineering Centre, one of the five such centres worldwide for Airbus.

At present, it has nearly 300 persons employed there. This is likely to increase to 450 over the next year or two. By the end of the decade, the plan is to take this number to 1,000. A new pilot training centre near the F1 Racing ground in Greater Noida near Delhi is expected to start functioning from May-June 2013