GE Aerospace Plans to Nearly Double Annual Spending on Indian Suppliers to About $400 Million by 2030
Why It MattersA larger Indian supplier base tied to engine deliveries and MRO demand points to aero-engine manufacturing and maintenance capacity increasingly being built close to India's fast-growing airline fleet.
GE Aerospace plans to nearly double its annual spending on Indian suppliers to approximately $400 million by 2030, up from around $200 million in 2025, as it prepares for rising aircraft demand and expanding maintenance requirements in India. The company announced the expansion on 12 October 2026 alongside the release of a report, Powering Progress: GE Aerospace's Economic Impact in India, compiled by Ernst & Young (EY) and covering its more than four decades of operations in the country. Vikram Rai, CEO of GE Aerospace South Asia, said India's commercial aviation growth is one of the fastest in the world and that doubling the spend will help grow the supply chain ecosystem to meet rising demand.
GE Aerospace expects to deliver more than 3,200 additional engines to Indian customers over the next nine to 10 years. As of December 2025, the company and its joint-venture partners had more than 1,400 commercial engines in service in India. The report estimates that India and South Asia will require 3,300 additional aircraft, equivalent to 6,600 engines, by 2044, and GE Aerospace and its partners are expected to power most of the approximately 1,500 new aircraft already on order with Indian carriers. In July 2026, IndiGo announced a memorandum of understanding with CFM International for more than 1,000 LEAP-1A engines to power 510 Airbus A320neo-family aircraft; GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines each hold a 50% stake in CFM International, and GE Aerospace described the agreement as the largest single order ever placed for LEAP engines.
The government estimates annual domestic passenger traffic will reach 1.1 billion by 2040, compared with 340 million in fiscal year 2025–26, and that the number of airports will rise from 163 to more than 350 by 2047. The report puts the revenue of India's domestic commercial airlines at approximately $19 billion in FY2026, with the wider aviation ecosystem supporting an estimated 370,000 direct jobs.
GE Aerospace's flagship manufacturing facility in Pune was established with an initial investment of $200 million, and the company has invested nearly $55 million there since 2024. It is supported by a network of 17 major domestic suppliers, and since 2015 approximately 5,000 production associates have graduated from its apprenticeship programme. The Bengaluru Technology Centre, established in 2000 with a $200 million investment, has secured more than 1,000 aviation patents and contributed to the design, development and certification of the GE9X. In defence, GE Aerospace has worked with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited since 1986 and signed a 2023 memorandum of understanding covering potential domestic manufacture of F414 engines for the Tejas Mk2, subject to final agreements and approvals.
