Namaste and good morning ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, India, Embraer, and Adani Defense and Aerospace, I extend a very warm welcome to the honorable Minister of Civil Aviation, the respected Ambassador of Brazil to India, dignitaries from the Indian and Brazilian governments, leaders from Embraer and Adani Defense and Aerospace, members of the media, and aviation industry leaders present here today.
To start the proceedings, I would now request Mr. Jeet Adani, Director of Adani Defense and Aerospace, to welcome our guest of honor, the honorable Minister of Civil Aviation, Sri Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu.
Now may I invite Ashish Rajani, President and CEO of Adani Defense and Aerospace, to welcome and felicitate Sri Rajesh Kumar Singh, Defense Secretary of India.
I now request Mr. Arjan Meijer, President and CEO of Embraer Commercial Aviation, to welcome Shri Samir Kumar Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Thank you. We will now proceed to the main event, something which all of you have been waiting for. May I invite Ashish Rajani, President and CEO of Adani Defense and Aerospace, for his presentation.
Honorable Minister of Civil Aviation, Honorable Defense Secretary, Honorable Secretary of Civil Aviation, dignitaries from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Ministry of Defense, Ambassador of Brazil to India, esteemed guests from media and industry, and our valued partners from Embraer. Good morning on this crisp, foggy Delhi day. I'm really thrilled to announce a pivotal milestone in India's aerospace journey: the strategic collaboration between Adani Defense and Aerospace and Embraer, the premier engineering and aircraft leader of Brazil. This is no routine partnership. It marks a watershed in building an indigenous regional aviation ecosystem for India. My sincere congratulations to the Ministry of Civil Aviation for their bold vision for an indigenous aviation hub for India and the global markets, powered by transformative reforms like UDAN for regional connectivity. Sincere gratitude to the Ministry of Defense for being the torchbearer of Make in India, nurturing a vibrant defense industry in the last few years. Thank you, Embraer, for entrusting India and Adani with this landmark initiative and forging unbreakable ties between the two great nations.
India stands as the world's third-largest aviation market, growing at double-digit CAGR in passengers, aircraft, and airports. The next 20 years in Indian aviation promise three times the growth of the last 100 years. A scale that doesn't demand imports, only self-reliance. Per capita seat availability lags at 0.13 in India versus 0.56 in China and 3 in the US. Air passenger penetration sits at 25% against 75% in China and 250% in the US. However, this is not a deficit. It's our opportunity, and it's our opportunity to rewrite the rules for Indian aviation. India has hundreds of underutilized airstrips serving tier 2 and tier 3 populations. The constraint is not demand. The barrier is aircraft and network economics. We shattered it today. 65% of India's GDP comes from urban and metro hubs while 65% of our population stays outside them. 45% of the workforce tills agriculture, contributing just 15% of India's GDP. India's imperative is not mere growth. It's inclusive growth, elevating the hinterland into economic powerhouses. The urban concentration has resulted in congestion, cost escalation, and infrastructure stress, which is unsustainable for a country of our size, geography, and 1.4 billion aspirations. China, facing similar imbalances in 2000, addressed regional air connectivity, transforming inland centers like Chengdu and Chongqing into economic powerhouses. Our regional transport aircraft collaboration with Embraer is not an aviation project. It's an industrial strategy. We are going to link tier 2 and tier 3 cities, elevate their GDP, generate tens of thousands of high-skill jobs in engineering, manufacturing, and MRO. Above all, we end import dependence, truly promoting Atmanirbhar Bharat. Our honorable Prime Minister has reinforced that imports did help in bridging the gap over the last 30 years. However, the next 20 years are very important. If we continue to import, it will drain billions in foreign exchange, erode pricing power, and expose us to critical geopolitical risk. Adani Defense and Aerospace is a regional leader, challenging norms and driving deep indigenization in unmanned air, naval, and ground platforms, electronic warfare, airborne platforms, MRO, and pilot training. Under guidance from the ministries of civil aviation and defense, we are going to build India's largest regional aerospace ecosystem across design, development, and manufacturing for Atmanirbhar Bharat to truly take off. The collaboration with Embraer establishes one of the largest regional aviation hubs, empowering regional India, fueling inclusive growth, and charting our economic destiny. My friends, in the end, let me re-emphasize: regional aviation does not follow development. It ignites it. Connectivity is the spark turning tier 2 and tier 3 dreams into national powerhouses. Together, let us build not just aircraft but India's unstoppable future. Rise with us and make Atmanirbhar Bharat fully take off. Thank you and Jai Hind.
Thank you, Mr. Rajani. Now I would like to invite Mr. Arjan Meijer, President and CEO of Embraer Commercial Aviation.
First of all, good morning everyone. Honorable Minister, honorable Deputy Minister of Defense, honorable Deputy Minister of Civil Aviation, honorable visitors from the government, Ambassador of Brazil. Welcome. Adani friends, I might say now, who've been working a lot over the last couple of weeks. And of course, my Embraer colleagues, welcome. Embraer is very proud to stand here today. We're very, very pleased to go and sign our MOU with Adani. We see a big future ahead of us here in India, and we believe the stars are aligning to connect the initiative for Make in India. We believe there's a huge opportunity here with regional aircraft, and I would like to have my few minutes that I have with you here to share a little bit of background of Embraer and why we see this as such an important market for us together. Embraer is the most diversified aircraft company around the world. We have five robust business units that we can see here on the slide. We had in 2024 a 7.5 billion revenue. 3 billion out of that is driven by commercial aviation, with around 80 aircraft today that we deliver per year from Brazil. Our main product being the E175, the E190, and E195-E2. And last year we added 220 aircraft to our backlog, which represents a 14 billion revenue and a 5-year building backlog. So very successful so far. Also defense growing at a high pace, and we have a very successful executive aviation, service and support, and EVE. And of course, I believe many of you in the room know what we're doing on the defense side with both the Super Tucano and the KC-390, which we believe also has a great potential here in India.
This slide shows the success of Embraer globally. It shows 80 airlines in 50 countries with more than 1,900 aircraft delivered. I expect us to deliver this year the 2,000th aircraft of the family. And not only are we flying all around the world, we're also able to support these aircraft all around the world. But India for us is still a market that we really feel we can help develop further into the future. So if you look at the success of Embraer, this is just a snapshot of what Embraer has achieved in the last 25 years across the world. We delivered 22 different aircraft. So this is the powerhouse in Brazil. The capability to develop aircraft across its business units: executive aviation, commercial aviation, defense, and all supported by service and support. There's no other OEM or aircraft manufacturer in the world that has developed so many capabilities in such a short time frame. And if we then look at India, the outstanding current fleet that we have today represents around 800 units. But if you look at the backlog, we're looking at around 1,700 aircraft for the years ahead. But the regional part of that fleet is very small. So we really believe to really develop India from within to the smaller cities, the country needs a smaller gauge aircraft to really help develop the country and the development of the country's GDP. So if I project it into the next slide where we see the global presence of the regional fleet, you see that for example in North America, there's more than 2,000 aircraft flying in the regional transport aircraft segments. If you look at India, it's a two-digit number of 81 aircraft, of which 90% today are turboprops. So the regional segment of jets is completely missing. If you see what the potential is in a country like India and with the numbers that Ashish just presented in terms of capability and potential, that tells you how big that market could be here in India for the years ahead.
So that's where we believe really that together with Adani, we can work together with a goal to build the aircraft here in India, the exact aircraft type to be defined. So we will come back on that. But we are talking up to an assembly line, testing, delivery. We really believe in a partnership with Adani because they're very strong in supply chain, MRO, pilot training. So we believe the combination of that, we're able to develop a very strong aviation ecosystem here in India. And of course, beyond that, we're very interested to work also with Indian industry for much deeper localization. We need to build our supply chain, and we believe that here in India we can do that also with Indian partners. So a potential first regional assembly line in India, that's what we're looking at here. We're very bullish to make that happen. We see a huge potential with components coming initially from Brazil, but as I said, we want to develop the indigenous market over the years to more and more make this a made-in-India aircraft. And that will allow India to really connect the second tier and the third tier cities in India. We know there's a lot of demand from smaller cities wanting to be connected to the bigger aerospace system, and this will bring not only regional connectivity, this will bring economic and environmental benefits. It will facilitate business and trade across the country. We are very certain that we will boost tourism across the country, and of course, for every Indian, provide everyday accessibility. So we believe the opportunity ahead of us is huge, and we're proud to be here today to announce the partnership with Adani, and we really look forward to making this a very successful future together here in India. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Meijer. May I now request Shri Samir Kumar Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, to address the gathering.
Good morning everybody. Honorable Minister of Civil Aviation, Respected Defense Secretary Sir, His Excellency the Ambassador of Brazil to India, DG Acquisition, Ministry of Defense, Shri Jeet Adani, Director Adani Defense and Aerospace, CEO Adani Defense and Aerospace, CEO and Leadership Team of Embraer, Distinguished Guests, Colleagues. Ladies and gentlemen, it is a privilege to be present on this important occasion as we witness the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Embraer and Adani Defense and Aerospace for manufacturing regional aircraft in India. I warmly welcome the honorable Minister of Civil Aviation and the honorable Defense Secretary Sir, whose kind presence underscores the importance of today's occasion. India today is among the fastest-growing civil aviation markets in the world. Over the past decade, our aviation ecosystem has undergone a fundamental transformation. Airport infrastructure has expanded rapidly. Passenger and cargo traffic has grown steadily. Indian airlines have embarked on unprecedented fleet expansion. As we just saw, the UDAN scheme has been a key driver of this change. It has revived unserved and underserved airports. It has improved regional connectivity in the last 10 years. Most importantly, it has made air travel accessible to citizens from smaller cities and remote regions. As we prepare to launch the modified UDAN scheme, a significant share of future passenger growth is expected to come from what we call tier 2 and tier 3 and regional towns and cities. This places clear emphasis on the need for a smaller, more efficient, and economically viable aircraft well-suited for regional routes. It is in this context that today's MOU assumes great significance.
As we all know, Indian carriers have placed orders for over 1,800 aircraft, and this reflects strong global confidence in India's aviation growth story. However, a resilient and sustainable aviation ecosystem cannot rely only on imports. For long-term competitiveness, India must be part of the global aircraft manufacturing value chain. Since its launch in 2014 by the honorable Prime Minister, the Make in India initiative has created a stable and enabling environment for global manufacturing partnerships. Today, global aerospace OEMs source more than USD 2 billion annually from Indian companies. The natural next step is to extend this success to civil aircraft manufacturing. We are working on regional transport aircraft design and development. The objective is to integrate India's scientific, engineering, and manufacturing capabilities. It is, however, recognized that collaboration with global leaders at the design and manufacturing stage is critical. It helps reduce developmental timelines. It also ensures that aircraft manufactured in India meet the highest global standards of safety, reliability, and most importantly, performance. In this context, the partnership between Embraer, a globally respected leader in regional aviation, and Adani Defense and Aerospace is a decisive step forward. This collaboration is not merely about assembling aircraft. It is about progressive transfer of technology. It is about skill development and workforce capability. It is about creating a robust domestic supply chain. And it is also about positioning India as a trusted manufacturing hub for regional aircraft. The focus on regional aircraft aligns perfectly with India's civil aviation needs, the UDAN vision, and the broader objective of inclusive growth. As we all know, civil aviation is not only about aircraft and airports. It is about connectivity, economic opportunity and development, employment, and national capability from manufacturing to maintenance and from design to certification. Partnerships like the one we witness today will help India move from being a large aviation market to becoming a serious aviation manufacturing nation. We welcome this partnership. We assure both Embraer and Adani Defense and Aerospace of our full support in providing a stable, predictable, and enabling policy environment. We wish both the partners every success. We look forward to this collaboration contributing meaningfully to India's aviation ecosystem and to the global aerospace value chain. Thank you and Jai Hind.
