France to help set up an aeronautical campus and industry cluster in India

France will be setting up a Franco-Indian campus on aviation and space apart from an aeronautical cluster in India, French Ambassador Thierry Mathou announced on Monday during the inaugural ceremony held to mark French Aerospace Industries Association’s (GIFAS) five-day visit to India.

The French delegation comprising 100 high-level representatives from over 60 companies is in India to meet their counterparts here to look for opportunities to grow their market as well as enhance co-operation in the aerospace sector. It is made up of seven prime contractors, 20 equipment manufacturers, 29 MSMEs and four start-ups covering the entire spectrum of the French civil, space and defence aeronautics industry. French majors such as Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Safran, and Thales are prominent among them.

“France is closely associated with India. 55% of French exports to this country are in the aeronautical sector amounting to €2.7 billion for the first part of 2024. These are exports by GIFAS companies,” said Mr. Mathou, adding that defence companies too were not only strengthening their footprint in India but helping integrate Indian companies with the global supply chain. He said there is an emergence of a Franco-Indian ecosystem in the aerospace sector in India, and France planned to replicate the same in the field of outer Space.

The Ambassador said that France is planning to set up a Franco- Indian campus for professional training in aeronautics and space in India to provide a framework for enhancing co-operation between the two countries in the domain of training as many Indians already participate in trainings at the National School of Aviation in Toulouse, France, and its Director General of Civil Aviation. An existing MoU will be renewed to this effect.

The Chairman of GIFAS and CEO of Airbus, Guillaume Faury, said that the GIFAS companies employed 17,000 people in India and had a network of 230 suppliers here.

Speaking about sourcing from Airbus alone from India, he said the company had doubled procurement from €500 million worth of sourcing in 2019 to a €1 billion in 2023 and this would continue to double every five years.

Responding to a demand from the Indian government for a final assembly line (FAL) for commercial aircraft given the large orders from Indian airlines , Mr. Guillaume said, “A FAL is the tip of the iceberg.” He said that a FAL was not the most important factor in manufacturing an aircraft, but large equipment, fragile supply chains lower in the supply structure were. “There are plenty of opportunities for companies around the world to contribute to develop the supply in the current environment,” he said, adding that Indian suppliers had crossed over from supplying engineering and IT services to hardware and in 2023 they provided more hardware for Airbus helicopters and planes rather than the former.

Published – October 07, 2024 09:09 pm IST

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