India will be fastest growing nation for air travel: Airbus

European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS), on Friday, said India would be the fastest growing country for air travel in the next 10 years as there is enough scope for its economy to develop.

Addressing the Global Investors Meet (GIM) in Bangalore, Airbus (EADS) Vice-President (Sales South Asia Customer Affairs) David Dufrenois said, “As there is an increasing number of middle class opting for air travel, there is huge potential for growth of air travel in India.”Airbus has over 70 per cent market share in India, Dufrenois said. The company has a global order backlog of 4,500 aircraft, he said.

Talking to Deccan Herald, Dufrenois said that going by statistics, it is observed that in the next twenty years, India be flying around 1,068 aircraft. Immense demand and opportuniy is seen in the Indian civil aviation sector.

Airbus VP (International Cooperation - APAC & Middle East) Srinivasan Dwarakanath said the company employs 2,000 Indian workers for its supply chain and that every Airbus 320 family plane is partly made in India.

The company already runs a training facility in the City, which is involved in training aircraft maintenance engineers and also focuses of pilot training. 

Airbus would be setting up a new training centre in Delhi NCR by 2013, which, along with the Bangalore facility would be training around 5,000 pilots, maintenance crew Dwarakanath said.