US aerospace major Boeing is planning additional investments in India within the commercial and defence sectors, as the federal government in New Delhi undertakes economic reforms to draw international traders and enhance its industrial sector.

“India is an exciting country, it’s an emerging superpower, it reminds you in some ways of late 19th-century America, it’s a vast market, and now with the reforms that Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi has undertaken, it enables companies like us to increase their investments,” Brendan Nelson, vice chairman of Boeing and president of Boeing Global, mentioned on Sunday.

“We’re also building a supply and distribution centre for components and parts. We’re working very closely at the moment … with some pre-eminent Indian companies on some defence products and also some commercial products.

“So, certainly we intend to invest a lot more in India to support the country and its aviation sector,” he mentioned, declining to elaborate.

Boeing presently employs 5,500 folks in India, with a “very large engineering population”, and has a three way partnership with Indian conglomerate Tata Group.

The Hyderabad manufacturing unit has been producing components for Boeing’s AH-64 Apache helicopter, together with fuselages, secondary buildings and vertical spar bins for patrons worldwide.

Boeing has added a brand new manufacturing line to fabricate complicated vertical fin buildings for the 737 household of planes, based on its web site.

The firm additionally plans to open a $200 million engineering centre in Bangalore early subsequent 12 months, Mr Nelson mentioned.

The deliberate investments come as Indian airways place report orders for planes with Boeing and Airbus.

Air India, which is now owned by the Tata Group, is making an attempt to lure passengers with direct providers to the US and Europe, site visitors that usually transits by way of hubs within the Gulf.

Watch: Fighter jets and Boeing 777X take to the skies at Dubai Airshow 2021

Fighter jets and Boeing 777X take to the skies at Dubai Airshow

Supply chain delays

Mr Nelson mentioned provide chain bottlenecks are anticipated to proceed in 2024, whilst demand for industrial jets soars.

However, the corporate “will not chase [production] rate at the expense of quality or safety”.

“And we also need to make sure that our suppliers – as you know, supply chains are constrained and will continue to be so through next year – are not under undue duress in order for us to grow rate,” he mentioned.

Boeing expects to ship 3,025 new industrial jets to the Middle East by 2042, together with 1,350 wide-bodies.

This means wide-body planes will comprise 45 per cent of deliveries to Middle East airways over the subsequent 20 years ─ the very best share of the ten international areas.

The Middle East’s single-aisle fleet can be anticipated to greater than double as low-cost airways and short-haul networks proceed to develop and increase. By 2042, almost half of the area’s plane will likely be single-aisle jets.

Updated: November 12, 2023, 3:51 PM