India eyes bigger share of global aircraft component manufacturing

India’s aircraft component manufacturing sector is gaining scale and global relevance, but industry leaders say bridging gaps in skills, capital, certification and infrastructure will be critical if the country is to move beyond being a machining hub and claim a larger share of the global aerospace value chain.

These themes dominated a session on aircraft components manufacturing on day two of Wings India 2026 at Begumpet Airport, where senior executives from global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), Indian suppliers and industry bodies painted a mixed picture of strong momentum tempered by structural constraints.

Setting the context, Senior Economic Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Piyush Srivastava, pointed out the imbalance between India’s growing aviation market and its manufacturing footprint. “While India accounts for around 5% of global aircraft fleet deliveries, aircraft manufacturing contributes just 2%, highlighting a significant gap,” he said. He noted that manufacturing activity has expanded in recent years, with Indian firms producing fuselages, wings and complex assemblies. Around 30 Indian suppliers, largely micro, small and medium enterprises, are together supplying components worth about $6.25 billion, underscoring the latent strength of the MSME ecosystem. The challenge now, he said, is scaling up manufacturing capabilities, including through partnerships, to meet rising global demand.

Ashwani Bhargava, Head of Supply Chain at Boeing, said the US aerospace major currently sources $1.35 billion worth of components from 325 suppliers in India. However, he cautioned that global competition leaves little room for complacency. “Continuity of supply and performance is what matters,” he said, flagging concerns over the past three to four months, including demand-supply imbalances, the absence of a full ecosystem for specialised processes and rising attrition levels of 25 to 30% across the industry. He also stressed the need for greater visibility across tier-two and tier-three suppliers, with growing pressure on tier-1 suppliers.

Ashish Saraf, Country Head and Chairman of the Board of Pratt and Whitney India, said India’s most significant contribution to aerospace manufacturing so far has been in machining. Saraf called for a production-linked incentive scheme tailored for aerospace, the creation of industrial clusters and a sharper focus on component MRO.

From a policy and investment perspective, AVM Michael Fernandez, Country Head India and GDB Director South Asia at Lockheed Martin, said ease of doing business remains a concern, pointing at the delays in regulatory clearances.

Experts also flagged skill gaps in the industry. Ashutosh Kumar, General Manager for SAE Production at Safran, argued that reforms in the education system are essential. Aerospace manufacturing, he said, requires not just skills but a specialised mindset, and change just begun right from education, with industry taking ownership of developing talent alongside government initiatives.

Industry representatives also highlighted the need for long-term capital support and common infrastructure.

Ajay Gururaj, Chief Commercial Officer, Dynamatic Technologies Ltd said focused testing facilities are essential to move from design to build, while raw material certification and viability gap funding are critical given the long development cycles in aerospace, particularly for composites. “A pure vanilla PLI scheme may not work without accounting for these extended timelines,” he stressed.

Srinivasan Dwarkanath, Director General of the Aerospace India Association, said India must urgently move up the design and build value chain in commercial aviation. He called for a national aerospace roadmap led jointly by industry, government and academia, prioritising skilling, raw material capacity, capital investment and common facility centres with shared testing and design infrastructure.