Honeywell, IndiGo sign cockpit tech deal for Airbus A-320

Q: You are not disclosing the financials of this deal but you are already working with lot of major Indian carriers, tell us a little more about this deal with Indigo, is it your first with the airline?

A: No definitely not, in fact we are present in each and every Indian airline that you can think of. The reason Indigo is important is because not only we will be supplying latest cockpit technology and auxiliary power unit for Indigo’s Airbus 320 but it is a very critical deal for the low cost carrier. Low cost carriers want highly efficient operations which ensure that cost is to be kept at minimum, delays should be kept at minimum and our technology will help Indigo in achieving those objectives.

Q: What is your sense on the Indian aviation market right now? It has been going through its own turbulent patch. We have seen several new airlines take flight in the last couple of months as well, what is your sense on the business and how it is shaping up?

A: If you look at the Indian aviation market you will see that the time of modest growth is over and from last year things have gone into a higher gear. In other words, growth is now in double digits. I think this year, in the first few months, growth has been extremely good and that is why you are seeing more and more new airlines trying to enter the market.

Q: Tell us more about Honeywell’s own plans for India and how you are looking at the remainder of this year?

A: I would just like to patch up on one particular area and that is the whole “Make in India” angle. It is not only that we are making in India across 5 or 6 locations but we are also entering into partnership with several Indian companies to make that happen.

Q: Can you give us some sense particularly for the aerospace business? Some sense of the investment that you are looking to put into India this year, perhaps a ball-park figure that you would be working, you and your team would be working with?

A: Again, I would not like to specify any particular dollar figure, investment figure because that is kind of kept inside the company. However, to give you a broad sense, as I said, we have 13,000 people and seven manufacturing locations and five design centres and besides that we are entering into partnerships with Indian companies. We are opening new design centres and we have opened new factories very recently. So, yes, there is appetite inside the company for big investments because India is the next big story and we want to be part of it.