While a resurgent Paris Air Show 2023 convened throughout last month, the Biden Administration hosted an official state visit from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During Modi’s White House visit, US President Joe Biden called out Boeing’s intention to make a significant investment in the Indian civil aerospace industry and help address that nation’s burgeoning demand for pilots.

A fact sheet issued for the state visit called attention to Boeing’s announcement of “a $100 million investment in infrastructure and programs to train pilots in India, which will support India’s need for 31,000 new pilots over the next 20 years.”

One high-profile development at Paris was Air India’s signing of an agreement with Boeing to acquire up to 290 US-made aircraft. As part of this contract, Boeing will train Air India pilots on the 737MAX with Boeing’s competency-based training and assessment program on-site in New Delhi. Boeing declined CAT’s invitation to further discuss its additional investments in India’s pilot training enterprise.  

The OEM’s presence in India’s commercial aviation and defense market continues to expand by other metrics. A Boeing press release June 23 noted, “We support Prime Minister Modi’s Make in India initiative, with more than 5,000 people in India pursuing high-quality careers doing innovative work on the Boeing team.”

Not lost in the flurry of press releases at the Paris Air Show, Boeing and CAE signed an agreement through which CAE will become a Boeing Authorized Training Provider and the first to offer Boeing’s Competency-Based Training and Assessment (CBTA) curriculum. A press release noted: “With this arrangement, Boeing and CAE will expand accessibility to high-quality, innovative flight training to commercial aviation customers worldwide.” A separate CAT query sent to CAE and Boeing specifically about the expansion of their collaborative training activities into India was not responded to.