The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Aircraft Division pushes up HAL exports

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 04, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Aircraft Division pushes up HAL exports

Ravi Sharma

It supplyies 22 shipsets a month to Airbus Industrie
HAL hopeful of bagging order for A340 doors

Bangalore: Even as the Defence public sector enterprise Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) attempts to ramp up its sales turnover from $ 1.75 billion now to $ 3 billion by 2011, exports lag behind at a miniscule Rs. 250 crore. Leading the way in pushing exports had been the aviation major’s Bangalore-located Aircraft Division, which, in 2006-07, accounted for more than Rs. 100 crore of HAL’s exports.

A.K. Saxena, who recently retired as Managing Director of HAL’s Bangalore Complex, told The Hindu that the Aircraft Division had successfully increased the delivery of shipsets (right and left hand doors) for the Airbus A320 f rom 6 to 20 and even 22 a month in the last 12 months. As per a $ 80-million agreement with Airbus Industrie, HAL is to supply 1,000 shipsets by 2008. HAL, which is supplying 50 per cent of all Airbus A320 and A319 doors, hopes to increase its share to 75 per cent.

Mr. Saxena said HAL was hoping to bag an order for the supply of emergency doors for Airbus A340.

HAL’s Aircraft Division, which is involved in the manufacture of packages used in the conversion of Boeing 737 (200/400/800 series) passenger aircraft into cargo versions, has delivered 15 cargo doors, each priced at around $ 1.5 lakh. The Boeing cargo door kits order is being implemented by HAL as part of a tie-up with Israeli Aerospace Industries Ltd.

“The Boeing order has huge potential, since by 2025 there will be over 3,000 of these aircraft that will have to be either dumped or converted into cargo versions. HAL will be ideally placed to tap into the cargo conversion market,” Mr. Saxena said.

Although the cargo doors are supplied to Israeli Aerospace Industries Ltd. which integrates them onto the aircraft in Israel, HAL hopes to undertake the conversions in Bangalore soon.

According to Mr. Saxena, the conversions could be done once HAL established its maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Bangalore.

Also helping the Aircraft Division push up exports has been the business alliance with Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, the Georgia (America)-based subsidiary of General Dynamics that manufactures business jets. The deal entails HAL supplying the aft fuselage for Gulfstream’s new mid-sized, high-speed trans Atlantic business jet, G-150. HAL will supply 200 shipsets over a four-year period. While the first aft fuselage is to be delivered by next March, each set is priced around $ 1.5 lakh.

Mr. Saxena, who said the Gulfstream deal was won after tough international competition, said it was for the first time that HAL was working on such a complex assembly and that to on a Federal Aviation Administration approved aircraft.

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