Air India arm plans MRO unit in Muscat, to service other carriers’ aircraft too
AIESL’s maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Nagpur. (File photo by Pranav Mukul) AIESL’s maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Nagpur. (File photo by Pranav Mukul)
Disinvestment-bound Air India’s subsidiary Air India Engineering Services Ltd (AIESL) has firmed up plans to open a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) unit in Muscat, Oman, from where it expects to generate labour revenue of at least $500,000 per annum, tender documents issued by the company showed. Despite being a 100 per cent subsidiary of Air India Ltd, AIESL is not a part of its parent’s disinvestment process and will be hived off through a demerger or other mechanism before the close of the exercise.
In the tender document for appointment of a sales and marketing agent in Oman, AIESL said that the MRO unit had received an approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in India but was awaiting a clearance from the Public Authority for Civil Aviation, Oman. At this MRO facility, AIESL will not only conduct line maintenance of Air India aircraft operating on routes to Muscat but will also target other airlines having operations in the gulf country.
The Muscat MRO will be a part of AIESL’s overseas expansion plan under which it first opened an international branch in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE). “Based on the experience and backed by cost benefit analysis, the opportunity to expand to other international stations will also be explored. At present, the report for Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah, Muscat has been prepared to start AIESL line maintenance operations and achieve profitability,” the company had noted in its annual report for 2016-17 released in September.
Currently, within India, AIESL has facilities at Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Nagpur and Thiruvananthapuram where, apart from Air India aircraft it services planes of other airlines such too. “AIESL marketing team is already in touch with various airlines… and we are hopeful to sign up with new operators like AirAsia Berhad, AirAsia Thailand, Unitop China, VietJet of Vietnam, Kalitta Air, Thai Smile, CEBU Pacific Manila, Oman Air and Sri Lankan Airlines for additional stations in India. In addition to this, AIESL has also entered into agreements with domestic operators like Jet Airways, GoAir, AirAsia India and SpiceJet to carry out their base maintenance work at MRO facilities of AIESL in India,” it said in the annual report.
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