Airbus arm, startup to produce equipment for airports under UDAN

A subsidiary of European aerospace major Airbus and an Indian startup it has incubated aim to work with the state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) to produce equipment for airports under the government’s reg

ional connectivity scheme.

Potential airports under the regional connectivity scheme include the newly operational ones: Mundra in Gujarat, operated by the Adani Group; Bellary airport, Karnataka (now defunct with flights operating to the Jindal Group operated Vijayanagar airport), Hosur airport, Karnataka, operated by Taneja Aerospace, and the AAI-operated Salem airport in Tamil Nadu.

The Airbus subsidiary, Navblue, produces aeronautical charts for worldwide airports and airlines. The startup, Eflight, is an aggregator for domestic flight support, primarily for business jets.

“Under the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme, by 2022, the government wishes airlines under the regional connectivity scheme to cover over hundred airports. So, AAI has its task cut out for producing and maintaining charts.

This is where Eflight & Navblue can work along with AAI and jointly produce charts as per laid down regulatory standards set by the DGCA,” said Prem Kumar, co-founder of Eflight, adding that there have been no talks yet.

Eflight is one the two Indian startups that recently signed contracts with Airbus under its startup accelerator programme called BizLabs. The other company from India is Neewee, a Bengaluru-based startup that provides solutions using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

An aeronautical chart is a map designed to assist a pilot in the navigation of aircraft.

Using these charts, pilots are able to determine their position, safe altitude, best route to destination, en route navigation aids, alternative landing airports in case of diversion, and other useful information such as radio frequencies and airspace boundaries.