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NEW DELHI: European companies are getting mega orders from Indian airlines and also running and building airports there as part of JVs. Ahead of her visit to India for the EU-India Aviation Summit this week, EU commissioner for transport, Adina Vălean, tells TOI in an exclusive interaction how she is keen on increasing direct connectivity between the two key partners and increasing further cooperation. Excerpts:
What areas of Indian aviation is Europe’s aerospace industry is looking at closely?
Aviation is a truly global sector, and its growth was also a consequence of tighter cooperation between players at an international level. India and the EU are dynamic markets with the same challenges and wish for more opportunities.
First, I believe we can offer our combined population of close to two billion people more direct connectivity. There is potential for growth here, as in pre-pandemic times, only 40% of passengers flew directly between India and EU countries.
India is also a resource hub offering a highly developed ecosystem of engineering and digital capabilities, with world-class talent and research facilities, all of which are of high value in the aerospace industry – from aircraft-manufacturing to air traffic management or airport operations.
In the beginning, I mentioned the challenges the sector faces, and probably the biggest one is decarbonisation.
Sustainable aviation fuels will be central to reducing the emissions in aviation. To increase our cooperation in this field, we have launched a project on environmental support and capacity building for partner countries to use and produce SAF, in which India will play a key role. These are just a few possible areas of closer cooperation.
Are some EU aerospace companies looking at manufacturing in India?
Naturally commercial strategies are to be decided by each company. But the mutual interdependencies of the EU and Indian markets are definitely growing, and clearly this is win-win. This is illustrated not just by the major Airbus aircraft order placed by Indigo and Air India recently, but also by the fact that today, every Airbus commercial aircraft has critical technologies and systems designed, developed and maintained in engineering and digital centres in India.
Of course, I too am happy that the A320neo is today the most used type of aircraft by Indian companies – not just because it is an EU aircraft, but also because this latest type of aircraft produces considerably less CO2 emissions compared to previous generation aircraft.
As for cooperation in the airport field, ADP is one of the examples of success at an international level. Here too, it is a win-win, because, EU companies have vast experience in both technical and financial aspects of airport construction and management, and can also learn from Indian experience, in particular in the field of digitalisation. (Flughafen Zurich is building Greater Noida airport).
I hope to see more cooperation going forward to help airports solve some of the many common challenges they are facing, from greening their operations, to dealing with capacity crunches, security, or safety issues relating also to the integration of drones.
Given supply chain constraints globally, what role you see India can play in easing the crunch situation?
Aviation production requires global and well-integrated supply chains that can deliver sophisticated, high-tech products. This is a matter of aviation safety and security. Recent crises have shown the need for alternative supply sources and not to be too dependent on any particular supplier or country. India has vast potential to increase its share in aviation supply chains as it has strong technical competencies in engineering and digital capabilities.
What is the current scale of Europe’s aviation supply, both goods and services?
The aviation sector is a real driver of economic growth in Europe. It supports almost 10 million jobs and €672 billion in EU economic activity, including 4.2% of all EU jobs and 4.2% of the EU’s GDP.
Similarly to India, one of the main drivers of this growth was liberalisation. In Europe, air transport liberalisation was not just about deregulation or privatisation – it was about bringing together distinct national markets, previously interlinked by a web of bilateral air services, into one single market. It took many years and much negotiation, but it has proven to be an extraordinary success story: stimulating competition, raising quality of service, and transforming air travel from a luxury good to an affordable means of transport, to the benefit of our citizens and our economies.
Since the creation of the EU single aviation market in 1992 the number of intra-EU routes has more than tripled to nearly 6,000. In 2019, more than 1 billion passengers travelled by air within, from, or to the EU. In 2021, over 15 million tonnes of freight and mail were handled at EU airports.
Building on our domestic success story, we are looking to complement our single market with global outreach, through the negotiation of aviation agreements. We already have 15 such agreements in place, including with the US, Canada, ASEAN and most countries in the neighbourhood around the EU, including the UK. In fact, seven out of 10 passengers flying to and from the EU are now covered by such an agreement.
As we continue to grow our aviation sector, our biggest challenge is to help it to decarbonise. So we are actively developing an ecosystem that is conducive to the development of innovative technologies for cleaner aircraft, more efficient traffic management and sustainable aviation fuels.
What is the impact of airspace closures on airlines and what can be done to mitigate this?
By the unjustified and illegal aggression against Ukraine and subsequently closing its airspace to the EU and other countries applying sanctions against it, Russia seriously disturbed global connectivity. This is obviously disruptive for the operations of affected carriers and affects the competitive position of EU airlines.
On the other hand, it is also clear that companies still flying over Russian airspace are doing it at their own risk – and at the risk of their passengers. In case of an incident, there is little to no possibility to repair an aircraft in Russia, in safe conditions, for example. The situation is regrettable but an unavoidable cost of the greater effort against Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine.
What areas of Indian aviation is Europe’s aerospace industry is looking at closely?
Aviation is a truly global sector, and its growth was also a consequence of tighter cooperation between players at an international level. India and the EU are dynamic markets with the same challenges and wish for more opportunities.
First, I believe we can offer our combined population of close to two billion people more direct connectivity. There is potential for growth here, as in pre-pandemic times, only 40% of passengers flew directly between India and EU countries.
India is also a resource hub offering a highly developed ecosystem of engineering and digital capabilities, with world-class talent and research facilities, all of which are of high value in the aerospace industry – from aircraft-manufacturing to air traffic management or airport operations.
In the beginning, I mentioned the challenges the sector faces, and probably the biggest one is decarbonisation.
Sustainable aviation fuels will be central to reducing the emissions in aviation. To increase our cooperation in this field, we have launched a project on environmental support and capacity building for partner countries to use and produce SAF, in which India will play a key role. These are just a few possible areas of closer cooperation.
Are some EU aerospace companies looking at manufacturing in India?
Naturally commercial strategies are to be decided by each company. But the mutual interdependencies of the EU and Indian markets are definitely growing, and clearly this is win-win. This is illustrated not just by the major Airbus aircraft order placed by Indigo and Air India recently, but also by the fact that today, every Airbus commercial aircraft has critical technologies and systems designed, developed and maintained in engineering and digital centres in India.
Of course, I too am happy that the A320neo is today the most used type of aircraft by Indian companies – not just because it is an EU aircraft, but also because this latest type of aircraft produces considerably less CO2 emissions compared to previous generation aircraft.
As for cooperation in the airport field, ADP is one of the examples of success at an international level. Here too, it is a win-win, because, EU companies have vast experience in both technical and financial aspects of airport construction and management, and can also learn from Indian experience, in particular in the field of digitalisation. (Flughafen Zurich is building Greater Noida airport).
I hope to see more cooperation going forward to help airports solve some of the many common challenges they are facing, from greening their operations, to dealing with capacity crunches, security, or safety issues relating also to the integration of drones.
Given supply chain constraints globally, what role you see India can play in easing the crunch situation?
Aviation production requires global and well-integrated supply chains that can deliver sophisticated, high-tech products. This is a matter of aviation safety and security. Recent crises have shown the need for alternative supply sources and not to be too dependent on any particular supplier or country. India has vast potential to increase its share in aviation supply chains as it has strong technical competencies in engineering and digital capabilities.
What is the current scale of Europe’s aviation supply, both goods and services?
The aviation sector is a real driver of economic growth in Europe. It supports almost 10 million jobs and €672 billion in EU economic activity, including 4.2% of all EU jobs and 4.2% of the EU’s GDP.
Similarly to India, one of the main drivers of this growth was liberalisation. In Europe, air transport liberalisation was not just about deregulation or privatisation – it was about bringing together distinct national markets, previously interlinked by a web of bilateral air services, into one single market. It took many years and much negotiation, but it has proven to be an extraordinary success story: stimulating competition, raising quality of service, and transforming air travel from a luxury good to an affordable means of transport, to the benefit of our citizens and our economies.
Since the creation of the EU single aviation market in 1992 the number of intra-EU routes has more than tripled to nearly 6,000. In 2019, more than 1 billion passengers travelled by air within, from, or to the EU. In 2021, over 15 million tonnes of freight and mail were handled at EU airports.
Building on our domestic success story, we are looking to complement our single market with global outreach, through the negotiation of aviation agreements. We already have 15 such agreements in place, including with the US, Canada, ASEAN and most countries in the neighbourhood around the EU, including the UK. In fact, seven out of 10 passengers flying to and from the EU are now covered by such an agreement.
As we continue to grow our aviation sector, our biggest challenge is to help it to decarbonise. So we are actively developing an ecosystem that is conducive to the development of innovative technologies for cleaner aircraft, more efficient traffic management and sustainable aviation fuels.
What is the impact of airspace closures on airlines and what can be done to mitigate this?
By the unjustified and illegal aggression against Ukraine and subsequently closing its airspace to the EU and other countries applying sanctions against it, Russia seriously disturbed global connectivity. This is obviously disruptive for the operations of affected carriers and affects the competitive position of EU airlines.
On the other hand, it is also clear that companies still flying over Russian airspace are doing it at their own risk – and at the risk of their passengers. In case of an incident, there is little to no possibility to repair an aircraft in Russia, in safe conditions, for example. The situation is regrettable but an unavoidable cost of the greater effort against Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine.
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