Airbus, Adani Defence join hands to explore aircraft services market

Airbus India and Adani Defence signed an agreement on Thursday to leverage synergies in aerospace and aircraft services, a fast-growing sector that is estimated to generate annual business worth USD 6.3 billion in the country by 2025. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Anand Stanley, president, and managing director of Airbus India and South Asia, and Ashish Rajvanshi, the head of Adani Defence and Aerospace.

Airbus and Adani Defence will explore opportunities for collaboration in the area of aircraft services for the Indian and South Asian markets, the Airbus said after signing of the pact at the DefExpo2020 in Lucknow. Airbus' global services forecast envisages the Indian aircraft services market to grow to USD 6.3 billion by 2025.

"Airbus is not only the world's leading civil aviation company but also a major innovator and provider of aircraft services. This MoU demonstrates our commitment to support the development of India as a world-class services hub for aerospace products," Stanley said. With Adani's recent foray into airports, this potential collaboration will leverage the synergies between the product and services excellence of Airbus and infrastructure, engineering and mega-project execution capabilities of Adani, the Airbus said.

"India is at the cusp of transformational growth in the aircraft services market," Rajvanshi said. "Our collaboration with Airbus is aligned to our vision of nation-building and to indigenize critical technologies and services, thus creating a vibrant ecosystem in aerospace capabilities in India." The Airbus showcased its best-in-class military products and cutting-edge defense technologies at the expo. Models of the highly-versatile C295 aircraft, as well as the H145M and the H225M helicopters, were among its top exhibits.