India is the fastest growing aviation market in the world, at a rate of nearly 20 per cent year-on-year over the last four years. It is estimated that as the market expands, there will be a need for over 2,000 aircrafts in the country.
In this backdrop, the government is working on a roadmap to boost manufacturing of more critical aircraft components in the country, Suresh Prabhu, civil aviation minister, said on Tuesday.
Currently, France's Airbus and US-based Boeing are the two largest plane makers.
Prabhu feels that India not only offers the raw materials, but also technological skills to make airplanes and more importantly, a growing market domestically as well as the wider Asian region, which is expected to see a huge boom in aviation, which could help attract manufacturing of key components.
"We must have manufacturing here. I am not saying everything from A to Z will happen in India, it is part of the value chain, supply chain that India can manufacture critical components, assembly should also happen in India," Prabhu said in an interaction with reporters at a Global Aviation Summit, organised by the industry body FICCI.
Given the huge demand and growth potential, he said that India was open to partnering with top manufacturers to make in India, which could happen over a period of time.
Even today, parts for jets manufactured by Boeing and Airbus are manufactured in many different countries and then shipped to the final assembly place. Prabhu says that India would like to be a critical part of this supply chain.
He believes the sector had the opportunity to create millions of jobs and therefore, there has been a decision to train more people for the aviation industry.
He is also keen to develop India as a leading MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) hub.
American plane maker Boeing had set up a MRO facility in Nagpur, with an investment of $100 million, which was later handed over to Air India under the agreement in 2015.
According to aviation secretary R.N. Choubey, around 1,000 aircrafts will be added in the next 7-8 years. Capacities equivalent to 100 more airports will be added in the next 15 years.
India's aviation market has boomed in recent years driven by low-cost airlines like Indigo that have rapidly expanded and low fares have made flying more affordable.
However, low fares, coupled with high operating costs has also hit bottom lines. Jet Airways, the country's largest full service carrier has made losses for last three quarters. Indigo and Spicejet also incurred a loss in the July-September quarter.
Even as flying had become more affordable and was driving huge growth, Prabhu said that there was also a need to make flying more sustainable too.