London, Aug. 23 (Agencies): European aerospace major EADS plans to invest 2 billion euros ($2.57 billion) in India over the next 15 years in various operations like production and setting up of research and development facilities.

The company is expected to announce details about its investment plans during the visit of its CEO Thomas Enders to India next week, EADS spokesperson gregor V. Kursell said. Enders will be part of a delegation accompanying German economics minister Michael Glos, who is scheduled to visit the country next week.

Regarding the company’s plans to develop a new army helicopter in India, Kursell said talks were underway between state-run Hindustan Aeronautics and its Eurocopter subsidiary about the joint development of a 10-tonne class helicopter.

However, no agreement has been reached yet and there would not necessarily be an announcement on this matter during Enders’s visit to India, Kursell said. The European aerospace and defence major already has one Airbus branch office and an EADS office in India.

The company's commercial jet aircraft division Airbus expects to gain at least half of the Indian aircraft market. Airbus expects airlines in India to acquire up to 600 aircraft with a total worth of over $60 billion before 2023.

Military plane

EADS today reiterated that the Airbus A400M military transport plane was on schedule, denying a report of delays in a French newspaper.

“We are sticking to the timetable,” said EADS spokesman Christian Poppe.

Airbus Military told media on July 19 at the Farnborough International Airshow near London that the A400M was on schedule and that top management at Airbus parent EADS was focused on the project.

This followed a similar report of delays in La Tribune and came just weeks after Airbus was rocked by delays to the A380 super-jumbo aircraft, which wiped a quarter off EADS's market value and shook investor confidence in the company.

The stock has under-performed the French CAC 40 index by 36 per cent so far this year.

Richard Thompson, senior vice-president (commercial) at Airbus Military, said at Farnborough that some subsidiary activities may be behind schedule but that the company would meet its major contractual milestones, such as the first flight.

But an aerospace analyst in London said: “Too many people both from outside the company and inside are saying that there are delays for there to be nothing wrong. I think there are going to be delays, and I think they will cost money.

“Realistically it’s going to be at least October, if not November or December, before we know the exact scale of the problem at the A400M programme given that EADS will probably not start a review of the programme before it has completed the review of the A380.”

The analyst estimated that EADS could take charges in the “high hundreds of millions” as a result of any A400M delay.

The A400M is due to make its first flight in January 2008, and the first delivery is due in October 2009.

The seven launch nations — Germany, France, Spain, the UK, Turkey, Belgium and Luxembourg — have together ordered 180 of the aircraft. South Africa has ordered eight, while Malaysia has ordered four.