Wings India 2026 showcases global aircraft giants in Hyderabad

Wings India 2026, South Asia’s largest civil aviation event, opened in Hyderabad with participation from 131 companies, including Boeing, Airbus, Embraer, HAL, Air India and IndiGo. The event showcased 34 aircraft and helicopters, with HAL unveiling its civil aviation strategy to expand its footprint from 6 percent to 25 percent.

Hyderabad: Shadowed by the plane crash in Baramati that claimed the life of Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Wings India 2026, the largest civil aviation event in South Asia, commenced here on Wednesday.

A total of 131 companies, including aircraft manufacturing companies such as Boeing, Airbus, Embraer and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as well as airlines such as Air India, Indigo, are participating in the four-day event.

The aviation companies displayed their aircraft, including Hindustan 228 aircraft, Dhruv ALH-NG helicopter, and LUH civil helicopter by HAL, Falcon 6X by Dassault Aviation, H125, H160 ACH, A321 Neo and A220 by Airbus, E175 and E195-E2 Profit Hunter by Embraer.

Overall, 34 different planes and helicopters were on display on the first day for business visitors and delegates who turned up for the event to have first-hand experience of the aircraft.

Union Minister for Civil Aviation K Rammohan Naidu said efforts were on to improve the manufacturing ecosystem that would help India become a global exporter of aviation components and products. He emphasised the need to improve the manufacturing ecosystem in the country to cater to the domestic demand that is going to grow in the next 10 to 20 years.

During the event, Airports Authority of India (AAI) Chairman Vipin Kumar said the AAI would invest Rs 15,000 crore to upgrade air traffic control tower automation, navigational systems and other critical infrastructure to make them future-ready by 2028.

Boeing, which has put up a stall at the event, projected the passenger air traffic in India and South Asia to grow at an average of 7 percent annually over the next two decades. To meet this growth, the airlines need nearly 3,330 new airplanes by 2044.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, which displayed its civil aircraft, has set a strategy to increase its civil aviation footprint from the present five to six percent to 25 percent with its various civil aircraft.