Reforms have made India attractive: Boeing
NEW DELHI: American aerospace major Boeing will increase its sourcing from India, which is currently at Rs 10,000 crore annually from about 320 suppliers here, as it emerges from its worst ever crisis. While Indian airline customers will get two aircraft per month this year and next, its plans for India go beyond planes. Boeing’s senior VP Brendan Nelson is in India and shared with TOI the company’s plans here. Excerpts:
Indian airlines have been facing a long wait for Boeing planes. Do you have any good news for them?
On the commercial side, our deliveries are increasing. We’re capped at 38 a month on the B737 MAX (which accounts for a lion’s share of orders in India) by the FAA. We expect to get to 38 a month in the first half of this year. That is all being determined by absolutely ensuring the quality and the safety of the products that we’re producing.
We are confident B787 Dreamliner production will increase from five a month to seven. That is good news for Indian customers both on the 737 and the 787. Air India will get some of the ordered wide body aircraft over the next two years.
Boeing completed the flight procedures for the upcoming Greater Noida and Navi Mumbai airports with AAI. What are the other areas you are working on here?
Linking of airports and the relationship between airports – primary, secondary, regional and so on – is a good illustration of where an original equipment manufacturer’s commitment to a country really lies. Selling commercial airplanes and defence platforms is extremely important. But if that is all we do for India, then we are not serving India’s interests.
We have eight decades of partnership with India. We don’t see India as a transactional relationship. So these investments in airports; training of pilots, technicians, ground crews; MROs; in our JV Tata Boeing Aerospace; on the Apaches; in Boeing Engineering India Technology Centre in Bangalore and Chennai are critically important investment in India’s future and through it of course in Boeing’s future.
What are your plans to grow sourcing of goods and services from India?
We’ve got about 320 suppliers in India who provide very high quality components and parts. A quarter of those are small businesses, which is also extremely important. So, the spend is about $1.3 billion a year on Indian suppliers. And the extent to which that grows will depend on how many planes we produce. Our backlog is 5,500 planes.
India is an emergent superpower. The reforms that have been undertaken in India make it a very attractive place for companies like us. Strengthening our presence in India and supporting India’s strength, strengthens us in the US. Good for Boeing and good for the bilateral relationship.
Any plans to have a final assembly line in India?
It will be some time before there is a demand in the region to justify the business case for a final assembly line.
