Airbus planning to house its innovation cell in Bangalore

Bangalore: Global aircraft manufacturer Airbus aims to source $1 billion worth of equipment and services from its Indian entities by 2020, said Kiran Rao, Executive Vice-President, Sales and Marketing and Customer Affairs, Airbus, on Friday. The company, which already sources software and engineering services from its facility in Bangalore, is setting up an innovation cell, which will be operational by the end of the year, Dr. Rao told The Hindu.
“This will not be an engineering centre, but will work with other Airbus units to develop new designs and concepts,” Dr. Rao said. “With the aviation market moving from the Western Hemisphere to the East, concepts of aircraft design should be coming from the East,” he said. “We have decided that our think tank for determining how aeroplanes should be, and how they should interact with airports and passengers and how pilots should interact with the craft would be headquartered in Bangalore and be headed by an Indian,” he said.
Airbus’ pilot training centre in Noida would be operational by 2013, Dr. Rao said. The facility would have the “capability” to train 5,000 pilots annually, but it would start operating only three simulator bays for training initially.
22/06/12 V Sridhar/The Hindu

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Foreign Jun 2012, New Jun 2012