V RISHI KUMARHyderabad, January 21

French aerospace and defencemajor Safran is upbeat on In-dia as it executes a hugepipeline of orders across civil-ian, defence and space andplans to expand facilities andset up a new maintenance, re-pair and overhaul (MRO) unit.

The €21 billion revenuecompany, which supplies itsengines for Rafale fi��ghter jetsand LEAP family of engines forcivil aviation, expects to stepup sourcing to €200 millionas its expands its supplierbase across SMEs.

Alexandre Ziegler, SeniorExecutive Vice President, In-

ternational and Public Aff��airs,Safran Group, said, “I see Indiaand France as strong partnersand Safran, with its widerange of customers, is upbeaton the business prospectsboth for supply of engines incivilian aircraft and also fordefence, including fi��ghter jetsand helicopters.”

High expectations“We have over 600 commer-cial planes fl��ying in India withour engines and have an or-der book of over 500 engines,which we expect to deliverover next few years. Thoughthe aviation sector has beenhit by the pandemic, we be-

lieve that it will bounce backby 2022-23. Towards this, wehave set up a manufacturingfacility in Hyderabad and areconsidering setting up of aMRO facility in India,” he toldBusiness Line. The MRO facilitycould entail an investmentoutlay of about €150 million.Ziegler said, “Safran has apresence in India of over 60

years in the core markets ofaerospace and defense. It hasa workforce off�� over 600 em-ployees in the country. Whileexpanding Safran’s footprintin India, it is committed to the“Make in India” programmefostering the development ofpartnerships with a wide ar-ray of customers.” In February2019, Safran had announcedplans to set up a new plant inIndia near Hyderabad for theLEAP engines. During a visit tothe Aero India Show, PhilippePetitcolin, Chief Executive Of-fi��cer of Safran, had outlinedplans to make parts for theLEAP turbofan engine fromCFM International.

Production rateWhen in its cruise mode by2023, the plant is expected to

deliver 15,000 parts per yearto support the LEAP’s sus-tained production rate. Thenew-generation LEAP enteredservice in 2016 and powersAirbus A320neo and Boeing737 MAX commercial air-liners.

The India plant is aimed atdeveloping a global supplychain to support the fast-paced ramp-up in LEAP pro-duction.

Safran had already an-nounced in 2018 the construc-tion of a Safran Electrical &Power factory to produceLEAP engines harnesses andRafale fi��ghter electrical wir-ing interconnections sys-tems. It is the largest providerin India for turbo-shaft en-gines for helicopters andpowers 100 per cent of heli-

copters manufactured byHindustan Aeronautics Lim-ited.

India is also the largest in-stalled base worldwide forSafran with more than 1,200INS (Sigma family) in use andbeing the reference of Indianarmed forces.

Indian airforceThe company is supportingthe Indian airforce with theM53 engine which is integ-rated in the Mirage 2000 andnow the M88 with is the en-gine of the Rafale fi��ghteraircraft.

“India is also a develop-ment hub for Safran. Cur-rently has 600 employees andplan to expand the employeebase with the new cluster inHyderabad,” he said.

Executes a huge pipeline of orders; plans toexpand facilities, set up a €150-m MRO unit

French aerospace major Safran upbeat on India

Alexandre Ziegler, SeniorExecutive VP International andPublic Affairs, Safran Group