"We don't want to copy what we have done in China (having an aircraft manufacturing base there). China started more on the manufacturing side, but the biggest development in India was on engineering and services sector.
"... But we plan to develop manufacturing base in India in the next three to four years," Eric Zenin, head of Airbus Business Development and International Cooperation, told reporters.
Airbus Director International Cooperation Swaminathan Dwarakanath said the company projected an expenditure of about $1 billion in India over the next 10 years if it found the "right partners and the right projects" as part of its globalisation plans.
Maintaining that Airbus Industrie planned to shift part of its operations out of Europe, its executive vice president Christian Scherer said it planned to build up to 20 per cent of aero structures and 30 per cent of engineering sub- contracting offshore by 2020 and "India will get a large chunk of this business".
He said Airbus Industrie already had five engineering centres outside Europe -- two in the US and one each in Bangalore, Beijing and Russia.