Stories
India's Aircraft Boom Fuels New Market for Plane Modifications
- •India's rapidly expanding aviation market is creating significant opportunities for aircraft modification and engineering companies beyond traditional MROs.
- •Companies like Eirtech Aviation Services design and certify modifications for airlines, including cabin layouts, galleys, cockpit power, and connectivity systems.
- •Eirtech, an Ireland-based firm, sees India as a major growth market due to the large aircraft orders by Indian airlines, despite it currently accounting for less than 10% of its revenue.
- •The company aims for more-than-proportionate growth in India, targeting 15% of its revenue from the region within five years.
- •Modification opportunities extend to new aircraft customization, changes to existing aircraft product offerings, and reconfigurations for aircraft transitioning between operators.
Key Questions Answered
Unlike traditional maintenance providers that physically work on aircraft, engineering and modification companies design and certify custom configurations, such as cabin layouts, galleys, cockpit power, connectivity, and avionics systems, and often manufacture the required installation parts and kits.
Eirtech views India as its largest potential customer due to the massive scale of fleet orders and aircraft pipeline, with the company targeting more-than-proportionate growth to increase India's revenue share from under 10% to roughly 15% over five years.
While delivery delays from major OEMs have reduced lease return transitions because airlines hold onto planes longer, this dynamic creates alternative upgrade opportunities as airlines choose to refresh cabin configurations or passenger offerings for an extended operational period.
