GE Aerospace in Evendale, Ohio, plans to nearly double what it spends with suppliers in India, to $400 million a year by 2030.
The company announced the plan at an event in New Delhi, in northern India alongside an economic impact report on its four decades in the country. Vikram Rai, who runs GE Aerospace in South Asia, said the increase reflects confidence in the country’s aviation and manufacturing base, The Hindu BusinessLine reported.
GE Aerospace makes engine components at a plant in Pune, in western India. The company established the plant with an initial investment of $200 million and has put in nearly $55 million more since 2024 for automation, precision manufacturing and workforce training. The Pune plant also supplies parts for the company’s engines worldwide. Its technology center in Bengaluru, in southern India, opened in 2000 and has secured more than 1,000 aviation patents.
“It’s in the components machined in Pune, the innovation in Bengaluru, and our trusted customers, who are building the next generation of India’s aerospace industry,” Rai said at the event.
The company said it works with seventeen major suppliers in India and more than 2,000 local suppliers. Approximately 5,000 production associates have graduated from the Pune plant’s apprenticeship program since 2015, and 400 to 500 new apprentices enroll each year.
Demand explains the plan. More than 1,400 GE Aerospace commercial engines are in service in India, along with more than 200 defense engines. Rai said approximately nine of every ten aircraft delivered to airlines in India over the next decade will carry engines from GE Aerospace or its joint ventures. In July, the airline IndiGo announced a memorandum with an engine joint venture of GE Aerospace for more than 1,000 LEAP-1A engines to power 510 A320neo family aircraft. The deal includes support for the airline’s planned engine maintenance, repair and overhaul facility. The report puts the maintenance opportunity for India’s repair industry at more than $5.5 billion.
Traffic is rising to match. Domestic passenger traffic in India stood at 340 million in the fiscal year ending March 2026, and government estimates cited in the report project 1.1 billion by 2040.
The defense side runs through Hindustan Aeronautics, GE Aerospace’s longtime partner in India. The two companies have worked together since 1986, and GE Aerospace’s F404-IN20 engines power the Tejas Mk1 light combat aircraft. In 2023, GE Aerospace signed a memorandum on possible local manufacture of F414 engines for the Tejas Mk2 program. That arrangement still needs final agreements and approvals.
The report also noted that GE Aerospace’s digital technology team in India works as a global capability center. The team supports the company’s worldwide supply chain, maintenance and sales operations with applied artificial intelligence.
