India will be one of the key centres for design and development of the A350 aircraft, according to European aircraft manufacturer Airbus. The designing work for A350 is next project for the Airbus Engineering Centre. It is the company's high-tech aircraft component manufacturing facility in Bangalore, which started operating in April 2007.

"The A350 is the next big project for us. The engineers at the facility are currently working on the development of tools to design the aircraft. We will soon get the software for analysing the stress and strain on airplanes. We are working on the structural analysis of the aircraft among other things," said Kiran Rao, president, Airbus India.
Rao said Airbus is recruiting engineers for the work every month. The Centre has 35 engineers and the number is supposed to grow to 300 in the next four years.

The A350 XWB (Xtra Wide Body), the new and enhanced version of the A350, has been built to take on the Boeing 777 family and some of the models of the Boeing 787. The aircraft has a wider fuselage, which makes it possible for it to hold nine people in every row.
"We have already received orders of 480 A350s, out of which 15 to 20 are being bought by Kingfisher," said Rao. The aircraft will be put into service from 2013.

Airbus has been looking at various ways to use India for both component manufactures, as well as leverage its research and development potential. The first manufacturing agreement was with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd was in 1998 to make doors for the A320.

"More than half the doors for the Airbus 320 are produced in Bangalore. And as we increase the production of A320s to 40 aircraft a month, which is the largest number of civil aircraft ever produced per month in the aviation industry history, more than 20 sets of doors will be produced in Bangalore every month," said Rao.

Airbus continues to remain positive over the prospects of Indian aviation. The merger of Kingfisher-Deccan led to a combined order of 200 aircraft, though the airline has asked for rescheduling of deliveries, the company's executive V-P Kiran Rao said.

"All other airlines will get planes on schedule as there is no request for deferred deliveries. We were in touch with Kingfisher-Deccan when the merger was on and felt that together the aircraft intake could not be as fast as for two different airlines. Airbus offers flexibility of schedule to customers and that's what happened with Kingfisher," Kiran Rao, who was in India to attend Kingfisher's launch of global operation, said.

Kingfisher has requested for deferred delivery (2010-12) of 32 A-320, which were supposed to join the fleet in 2008-09. On the other hand, Airbus doesn't except big orders like 100 or 50 planes from Indian carriers. "In 2008, all planes are being delivered as per schedule. In 2009 and 2010, instead of 50 planes, we will be delivering 40 planes every year — one every week," Rao said. The future orders, the company feels, could start after 2010, by when the growth rate could settle to a mature level of 6% to 7% instead of the 20% that were recorded earlier.

Airbus rival Boeing has also been striking deals in India. These include a 10-year agreement with HAL to get $1 billion worth of business in the aviation space, a contract to the Tatas to make floor beams.

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