For a few years now, India’s civil aviation sector has been the fastest-growing in the world. But, that may well be a problem which India is now getting around to sorting out: a booming sector, albeit one fuelled by all things imported. From the aircraft to engines to fuel to even cabin seats.
Yes, you heard it right. Aircraft seats, each and every one of them being imported, simply because India did not have the standards to make them.
Girish Mudgal, co-founder of Timetooth technology, would perhaps like to believe that it is probably because no one bothered. So his Bengaluru-Noida-based company ventured into the long process of designing and crafting one from scratch, spending the last few years gaining all the clearances and certifications needed.
The last of which, from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), came in on Wednesday afternoon at Wings India 2026, Asia’s biggest civil aviation event, presently on in Hyderabad.
“True Atmanirbhar aviation can only be achieved when Indian product companies own design IP, manufacturing and type certification,” said Girish Mudgal, Co-Founder, Timetooth Technologies. He added, “This vision requires capable Tier-I suppliers to be supported by regulators like the DGCA and enabled by forward-thinking airlines.”
Timetooth still has a long way to go, with the present certified seats meant for smaller aircraft. Jhansi Nene, Vice President (engineering) of Timetooth, said the company will soon come up with C127C certified seats for the workhorses of domestic aviation, like the Airbus A320 and A321.
Regional airline Fly91, which operates smaller aircraft on routes in Goa, Maharashtra, Kerala, etc., is presently the only one to adopt the seats. “This MoU reflects our intent to build critical aviation capabilities within India. We see value not just in operating aircraft, but in nurturing an ecosystem that supports indigenous design, certification and manufacturing,” said Manoj Chacko, MD & CEO, FLY91.
But the scope, according to Timetooth, is immense: with around 1,200 aircraft on order by just the three top Indian pan-national airlines, Indigo, Air India and Indigo, the seat requirement over the next decade will be about 2 lakh seats, amounting to hundreds of thousands of crores.
The ‘Made-in-India’ aircraft seat is only part of a sorting out a mix of policy and industry push has been attempting to foolproof the rapidly growing segment from its overwhelming dependence on foreign entities and technologies.
Perhaps it also stems from the rapid realignments and reconfiguration in geo-strategic alliances, where trade itself has become a potent weapon. And India definitely does not want to be on the wrong end of the barrel.
Similar to such push in the defence and aerospace areas has been a sudden and consistent push towards local manufacturing, if not outright indigenisation.
This includes a sudden flurry to manufacture civil aircraft in India by at least two big tie-ups. One is the government-owned Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) tying up with United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), the Russian owner of the Sukhoi SuperJet SJ-100. HAL chairman and managing director D.K.Sunil said it is planning to initially lease 10 to 20 of these, before going in for local production in a licensing agreement, similar to what was done earlier with the fighter jets from the same company. The manufacturing is likely to be at HAL’s existing facility in Nashik or Kanpur.
“We see a good market, upwards of 200 aircraft for an aircraft of this size in the Indian market,” said Sunil, “There is enough market, we are talking to the operators.”
He clarified that he does not see any issue in collaborating with the Russian entity, considering the fear of US sanctions. “We don’t see a risk that there will be a sanction that will hold up a corporate deal. That risk is the first thing we looked at, and I think that is not in the picture.”
The other biggie announcement on the sidelines of Wings India was the announcement of a joint aircraft manufacturing venture between Adani and Brazil’s Embraer. Even though Adani did not seem to have decided where the project would be established or how much the cost would be, it is significant.
Embraer is the third largest civil aircraft manufacturer in the world, though often eclipsed in size and visibility by the two giant market leaders, Europe’s Airbus and USA’s Boeing. It has been actively promoting its E-jet and Regional Jets in recent times, considering the global situation where production issues with the two biggies have meant that the immense demand for aircraft in a booming industry has not been met, with many orders delayed by years.
“This partnership is more than just a business agreement. It is a vision taking flight. It represents India's determination to build world-class aviation capabilities on our own soil…turning aspiration into action,” Jeet Adani, director, Adani Defence & Aerospace, said.
Beyond manufacturing, India is taking baby steps across the Aviation value chain. This includes India’s first indigenously developed aircraft seat, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to MRO (manufacturing, repair and overhaul) facilities.
While SpiceJet did demonstrate a flight flying fully on ethanol a few years ago, the 2019 Republic Day parade saw a military transport aircraft fly past on SAF made from seed oils by Dehradun’s Indian Institute of Petroleum.
Presently, the global aim is to reach 1 per cent blending by next year and 5 per cent by the end of the year. Indian Oil’s Panipat refinery has already got certification for this and is set to start commercial production soon. India’s aim is to utilise its immense agricultural waste and used cooking oil, etc., as a significant source for SAF production as it scales up in the coming years.
This would be a significant shift from importing petroleum worth hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees every year to refine into Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) presently, with some specialised jet fuel (mainly for high-performance defence requirements) being actually imported directly.