Three Nacil MROs to take wings by fiscal-end

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New Delhi, Mar 7 : Three of the four maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities, to be set up by National Aviation Company of India Limited (Nacil), will begin operations fiscal-end.

Consulting firm Accenture was hired by Nacil to advise the public-owned airline on its way forward. It was suggested that the airline start four MROs – two for airframes (with Boeing and EADS), one for aircraft engines and another for aircraft components.

After the Nacil board approved this plan, the airline has signed MoUs with aircraft manufacturers EADS and Boeing. Nacil will come out with the RFP (Request for Partner) for the engine MRO in a couple of months, sources said.

The MRO with Boeing is in its advanced stages but at the moment negotiations are on over the shareholding pattern of the JV company though the two firms are yet to sign the MoU (only an in-principle MoU was signed with the erstwhile Air India).

“There are a few things in the negotiations stage as Nacil wants majority share of the JV company,” sources said. The MRO is expected to be set up in Nagpur with around $100 million in initial investment.

The MRO with airplane maker Airbus’ parent company EADS was signed on January 24 and at present the two firms are working out the business plan. “The business plan consists various things like the workload, man-hours, inventory and total expenditure,” Nacil source said. “After the business plan is ready and approved by the Nacil board then the two companies will decide on the location and identify a partner,” he added.

The MRO with EADS is expected to be in Delhi as Nacil has quite a bit of infrastructure in place here already, sources said.

“The difference between the two MROs is that Boeing is a shareholder in the joint venture company but EADS is just giving technical advice and not an equity partner. Both partners will decide a partner who will bring international brand and expertise to the MRO,” the source added.

Nacil is in the process of studying the viability of the Aircraft components MRO as there are a number of component manufacturers with repair facilities already available.

An MRO ideally needs around 200 aircraft to be viable and for Nacil much of this will come from their existing fleet apart from air carriers in the country like Spicejet and Jet Airways.