Boeing’s future India manufacturing plans hinge on scale of aircraft orders

US aerospace giant Boeing has signalled that it would require far more aircraft orders from India before considering the establishment of a final civil aircraft assembly line in the country, reported Reuters.

"The business case in order to have final assembly in any region has to be far larger than what the Indian market is. It requires many more airplanes than are being bought in India today," Reuters quoted Salil Gupte, President of Boeing India and South Asia, as saying.

Gupte noted that while Boeing remains optimistic about the growth of the Indian aviation market, a final decision on setting up an assembly line would depend on the scale of future orders.

"We'll have to see how it evolves as the markets in India and around India go. In the meantime, it is all about building stepwise capability to get up to that point," he added.

The remarks come against the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion last year that India would not have to wait long for a Boeing aircraft designed and manufactured in the subcontinent.

Speaking at the inauguration of Boeing’s engineering centre in Bengaluru, Modi had stressed the need to rapidly develop an aircraft manufacturing ecosystem in India.

Boeing’s India Engineering & Technology Center (BIETC), located in Karnataka's capital, is the company’s largest facility outside the United States. The $200 million campus, spread over 43 acres, focuses on research and development, although the company has not disclosed employment figures for the site.

Boeing employs over 6,000 people across its Indian operations.

India’s aviation sector, the world’s fastest-growing, has seen surging demand for aircraft.

Last year, Boeing secured an order for 150 737 MAX narrowbody jets from Akasa Air, the country’s youngest airline.

In 2023, then Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia urged both Boeing and Airbus to consider setting up final assembly lines in India to support the burgeoning aviation market.

Boeing currently collaborates with Tata Group to produce fuselages for AH-64 Apache helicopters and vertical fin structures for 737 aircraft.