The Indian air travel market has been witnessing 20 per cent annual growth in domestic passenger traffic. To sustain this double digit annual growth, country’s aviation infrastructure needs to grow. It has been learnt that over 800 new aircraft are likely to enter the market. At present, 500 aircraft are operated by country’s carriers, PTI reported on July 20. Now, front-end infrastructure such as airport terminals and runways are coming up in good numbers. However, it is the aircraft maintenance which is still lagging behind in terms of global standard.
Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL)’s, a subsidiary of national carrier Air India, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in Nagpur is a vital cog in the wheel to address the above-mentioned issue. It has been learnt that the Nagpur MRO facility consists of two wide-body hangars, a support building and other miscellaneous buildings. The MRO unit is designed for undertaking maintenance of any type and size of aircraft, including A380. Each hangar can accommodate one wide body or three narrow body aircraft at a time, as per PTI report.
However, the growth and commercial viability of the facility will depend on a number of factors such as air traffic growth at Nagpur, having better commercial sense for private airlines, and fiscal incentives to the unit to make it competitive with other MRO companies in India and other key locations spread across Asia, according to Indian Express report.
You may also like to watch
In the new Civil Aviation Policy, the central government had categorically laid down its aim for developing India as an MRO hub for aircraft. “The MRO business of Indian carriers is at around Rs 5,000 crore, 90 per cent of which is currently spent outside India — in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, UAE, etc. Given our technology and skill base, the government is keen to develop India as an MRO hub in Asia, attracting business from foreign airlines,” the policy document, which was released last year, state, as per IE report.
