Haryana’s Hisar likely to house India’s first private sector trainer aircraft manufacturing facility by year-end | Business News
India’s first-ever private sector manufacturing facility for trainer aircraft is likely to come up in Haryana’s Hisar by the end of the year, with Tamil Nadu-based diversified Sakthi group and Austria’s Diamond Aircraft Industries joining hands. Both are likely to set up a final assembly line (FAL) for the Austrian company’s popular DA40 NG trainer planes, which will be supplied to various flying schools across the country. Sakthi Aircraft Industry, the joint venture of Sakthi group and Diamond Aircraft, inked an initial pact with the Aero Club of India on Tuesday to supply 200 DA40 NG aircraft to its affiliate flying schools, or flying training organisations (FTOs).
Of the 200 single-engine, four-seater trainer aircraft on order for various Indian FTOs, the initial 50 will be imported as complete knocked-down (CKD) units from Diamond Aircraft’s existing manufacturing facilities in Austria and Canada, and will then be assembled in India. The remaining 150 planes will be produced at the planned FAL, which “most likely” will come up at the Hisar aerodrome in Haryana and should be functional by the end of 2025, Sakthi Aircraft Industry’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Vaibhav D told reporters on the sidelines of the event.
The JV is looking to produce 100 trainer aircraft a year in India, anticipating significant demand from flying schools in the world’s third-largest and fastest-growing major aviation market. According to Vaibhav, Sakthi Aircraft Industry aims to have India-made components to the tune of 60-70 per cent in the assembled-in-India DA40 NG planes within the next five years as it plans to source heavily from Indian aircraft component manufacturers who are already supplying to global majors like Airbus and Boeing. As for the 200-plane order, which is being touted as among the biggest trainer aircraft orders globally, the JV expects to complete deliveries sometime in 2027.
Financial details of the 200-aircraft order and likely investment in setting up the FAL were not immediately available. Industry sources indicated that the list price of a DA40 NG aircraft range starts from around $600,000. The Diamond DA40 NG is a modern, single-engine, four-seat aircraft rated highly for its efficiency, safety, and technological features, and is counted among the popular trainer aircraft globally. It is also a popular aircraft for private owners. Other major international players in the general aircraft and trainer aircraft segments include Cessna and Tecnam.
With India’s aviation sector expanding rapidly with massive aircraft orders amid a surge in demand that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, the country would also need a robust pipeline of homegrown pilots. According to Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu, India will need 30,000 pilots over the next 15-20 years up from the current 6,000-7,000 pilots, given that Indian airlines cumulatively have over 1,700 aircraft on order. India’s commercial aircraft fleet currently stands at over 800 aircraft. On average, one aircraft requires an airline to have 15-20 pilots for narrow-body aircraft and 25-30 pilots for long-range wide-body jets.
Speaking at the event, Naidu emphasised the need to develop a large and world-class flying training ecosystem in the country to meet the Indian aviation sector’s rapidly growing demand. Currently, there are 38 FTOs in India, and the number is slated to rise in the coming years given the rising demand for pilots.
The collaboration between the Aero Club of India and Sakthi Aircraft Industry is projected to enable training of 1,000 commercial pilots annually and 10,000 pilots over the next 10 years. The Aero Club of India is the largest owner of trainer aircraft in India and has played a pivotal role in development of FTOs in India. The organisation is playing the role of a facilitator in the 200-trainer aircraft order announced Tuesday. It has pooled the aircraft orders from various Indian FTOs that are its affiliates, and will be collaborating with financial institutions to help FTOs to take the trainer aircraft on lease.
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“Under the agreement, ACI (Aero Club of India) will act as the central aggregator, consolidating demand, managing aircraft allocation, and facilitating seamless handovers to FTOs. SAIPL (Sakthi Aircraft Industry), in a joint venture with Diamond Aircraft Industry, Austria, will establish a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in India to produce, sustain, and provide comprehensive lifecycle support for the DA40 NG,” ACI and SAIPL said in a joint release.
