Sunny brings with him a diverse set of skills and expertise that will play a key role in building new platforms of growth for Airbus Helicopters in the region’
24 August 2021: Indian aviation sector braved the COVID-19 pandemic with slow and steady growth. The opening of international borders and tourists gearing up for leisure travels are playing a key role in boosting airline economics. However, the Indian Helicopter sector still remains at a nascent stage. As per the 2019 statistics, India has less than 250 registered and operational civil helicopters and a little over 1000 helipads. This fleet size contributes to less than one percent of the world’s helicopter fleet.
In a market like India where Helicopter requirement is rising in multiple areas like tourism, mining, corporate travel, medical services and of lately private charter sector, Helicopter bigwigs like Airbus Helicopters, Boeing, Bell etc are vying for market space. Also, the Indian Government is trying to build a domestic defense and aerospace industry under its flagship scheme Make in India and Atma Nirbhar Bharat schemes.
Under such conditions of Increasing helicopter demand post pandemic, Airbus handed over the India Helicopter reigns in the young hands of former Tech Mahindra consultant Sunny Guglani. He has spent seven years working for the Airbus CEO’s office and leading the A380 marketing team in Toulouse. In his new role he will now be heading Airbus Helicopters India and South Asia and will be responsible for growing Airbus’ civil, parapublic and defence helicopter business in the region, including aftermarket services.
Expressing his confidence at the recent appointment Remi Maillard, President and MD, Airbus, India and South Asia said, “Having worked with Airbus both in India and at our headquarters in the past, Sunny brings with him a diverse set of skills and expertise that will play a key role in building new platforms of growth for Airbus Helicopters in the region.”
Further encouraging India’s defense manufacturing by foreign OEM’s, the government has opened the defense sector for 74 percent of FDI under automatic route in September last year.
“Airbus Helicopters was uniquely positioned to bring the ‘Make in India’ programme to life in the field of defence helicopters. On the civil and para-public side, India offers a huge potential in areas such as Emergency Medical Services, Urban Air Mobility, Airborne Law Enforcement. Sunny will lead the efforts, working together with our local stakeholders and partners,” Rémi Maillard continued.
Guglani succeeds Ashish Saraf who joined French defence and high-technology giant Thales to head its India operations in June this year. In his role at Thales, Saraf would lead their business in India and take forward its commitment to support the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ vision of the government.
On Saraf’s appointment, Pascale Sourisse, Senior Executive Vice-President of Thales commented, “I am pleased to welcome on board Ashish Saraf to the Thales Group, who joins us in an extremely challenging COVID situation. Under Saraf’s leadership, Thales will continue its decades-long partnership with Indian stakeholders to support the country in this time of need.”
Prior to joining Thales, Ashish served as the President and Head of Region for Airbus Helicopters – India and South Asia where he led sales and services, training and innovation, industrial partnerships and government relations across the civil and defence markets in South Asia.
During his two decades long career, Ashish also headed Tata–Sikorsky joint venture in Hyderabad and also worked with Deloitte Consulting and Dassault Systems, mainly in the United States and Europe.
