There is way more than meets the eye here. 90% of the worlds private planes are designed in India. It takes 40,000 man hours to do this. Most of the time is for design detailing and documentation for regulatory approvals. Each altered plane needs an approval to be declared as flight worthy. The parts inside an aircraft are called monuments (don’t ask me why).
An Airbus A320 bare shell costs USD 75 million. The interiors cost USD 23 million. Now divide this amount by 182 seats and each seat costs more than a Kings throne. India does not make monuments. We do not have a single workshop which can fit out a private jet. Anyway where would you land the plane to fit it out.
The developed countries own this market. And they do it through regulation. It is really hard to get an aircraft seat approved. It costs a lot of money to do the tooling. Something like USD 4 million. And you hardly sell any seats. Finally how many planes do Boeing and Airbus make. China has been trying to break into this market. With almost no success.
India has one startup which has been at this for close to twenty years. The seat has been ready for ten years. But regulatory approvals take time. Any company from India struggles. So this startup – Ionique Innovation – came up with a smart idea. They would sell aircraft quality seats for use in buses, water metros and private yachts. The seats took less space and so the bus operator could squeeze one more row. The gamble has worked. Even some schools have ordered these seats for their online exam halls.
The seat sells for Rs 3.5 lacs but costs Rs 13,500 to make. A lot of people are willing to pay Rs 20,000 for it.
What China is doing is to get around US Regulations by retrofitting their own planes. This will get them a certificate that they have already supplied monuments for an aircraft.
Over the next ten years, India will become the largest manufacturer of bespoke monuments for the aircraft and yacht industry.
It is a repeat of what happened in Hollywood props. Noida and Meerut now account for 99% of all props used in filming Hollywood movies. This includes the space ships and speciality vehicles including Batmobile, flying jet skis and submarines. In 2005, the area was the world leader in 3D printing. Nothing was ever made by 3D other than a mock. And then skilled artisans would fabricate it manually in brass, ceramic or glass.
Aviation monuments will go the same way