- LEAP Forward : HAL to Manufacture Inconel Forged Parts for Safran Engines
Le Bourget, Paris. 19 June 2025. The 55th edition of the Paris Air Show witnessed a significant milestone in Indo-French aerospace collaboration as Safran Aircraft Engines signed a new agreement with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to industrialize and produce Inconel rotating parts for the widely used LEAP engines. This cooperation marks another major step under the ‘Make in India’ initiative and reinforces the strategic supply chain partnership between the two aerospace giants.
The new agreement builds on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in October 2023, followed by a contract signed in February 2024 for the production of forged parts. With this latest development, Safran Aircraft Engines is not only expanding its footprint in India but also strengthening HAL’s role in global engine manufacturing programs, particularly the LEAP family that powers most of today’s single-aisle civil aircraft.
“We are really proud to expand this long-standing partnership with Safran and to develop our industrial expertise in forging processes for Inconel parts for the LEAP program,” said Dr. D.K. Sunil, Chairman and Managing Director of HAL. The agreement comes at a critical time as India’s civil aviation market continues to surge, with over 2,000 LEAP engines already on order for Indian airlines. To meet this demand, Safran is developing a complete aerospace ecosystem in India, supported by its Indian partners.
“We are pleased to extend our collaboration with HAL, a key player of the Indian aerospace industry,” said Dominique Dupuy, Safran Aircraft Engines’ Purchasing VP. “This industrial cooperation is part of our roadmap to diversify our production sourcing and strengthen our industrial footprint in India, so as to support the growth of domestic air traffic with our LEAP engine and prepare for future requirements of the M88 engine powering the Rafale.”
Safran currently operates five production sites in India across Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Goa, and is set to open a sixth MRO facility in Hyderabad by the end of 2025. This expansion aligns with the creation of the Safran HAL Aircraft Engines joint venture established in 2022, which specializes in components for both the LEAP and M88 engines.
India has emerged as CFM’s third-largest market globally, with 75% of the country’s commercial fleet powered by CFM engines. Of the 500 aircraft flying with CFM engines across 7 Indian airlines, over 370 are LEAP-powered.
This new phase of cooperation between Safran and HAL reflects the growing depth of Indo-French aerospace synergy, built on decades of collaboration and mutual trust. By investing in advanced local manufacturing of LEAP engine components, the two companies are not only reinforcing India’s strategic autonomy in aerospace but also supporting global aviation supply chains with precision-engineered, made-in-India components.
