Interview with Awibhawan Dhakharia,
Head of our office in Bangalore
Awibhawan Dhakharia, Head of our office in Bangalore (India) talks about the full engagement to increase our footprint in India and reviews the successful participation in Aero India 2021.
Awibhawan, could you please introduce yourself?
I am Awibhawan Dhakharia, I have been working for 22 years in the Aerospace and Defense Industry, and I joined Liebherr in 2017 as Head of the Liebherr-Aerospace Office in Bangalore.
As a long-standing partner of the Indian aviation industry, Liebherr-Aerospace currently supplies and maintains already many components for aircraft that are built by the Indian manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Furthermore, our products are already flying every day in India, operated by airline customers and maintained locally or within the Liebherr service center network.
Our team in Bangalore consists of five persons and we are fully engaged in the project to enlarge Liebherr’s footprint in India. Our office serves as a basis for the various strategic steps of the company - not only in the Indian aerospace market.
How does “Footprint in India” materialize for Liebherr-Aerospace?
Our team has a wealth of knowledge and expertise of over 50 years of combined experience in engineering as well as aviation including MRO.
We are supporting Indian civil and defense aircraft manufacturers, operators as well as suppliers. Customer Service activities with airlines are covered as well by the team who is in constant contact with Liebherr-Aerospace’s repair station in Singapore. Our job is also to coordinate projects with the European-based Original Equipment Manufacturers facilities Liebherr-Aerospace Lindenberg GmbH (Germany), Liebherr’s center of excellence for flight control, actuation, gears, gearboxes and landing gear systems as well as electronics, and Liebherr-Aerospace Toulouse SAS (France), Liebherr’s center of excellence for air management systems.
Furthermore and for already quite some time, our office is also supporting Liebherr’s automotive and railway vehicle customers. We are now paving our way to become a strong player in the markets.
Liebherr-Aerospace participated with a stand in Aero India 2021 – your impressions?
We met with many visitors including delegations and discussed with them about current and future aircraft programs. The feedback was very positive. We explained to them that our growing footprint in India will encompass engineering support, manufacturing as well as customer service. In addition, we used the exhibition as a very good platform to intensify the relationship with our Indian supply base. Overall, it was a very successful participation and we are looking forward to the next edition of Aero India in 2023!