Airlines can avail engineering services from Air India

Following its merger with Indian Airlines, national carrier Air-India will throw open its engineering services to other domestic and international airlines as well. Currently, many domestic airlines send their aircraft to the Middle East for engineering services. According to Air-India officials, the company’s engineering market cell is geared towards undertaking third party work of various international airlines. The cell has already started receiving queries about various services like maintenance of airframes, aircraft furnishing, line maintenance, major maintenance and providing certification of aircraft. V Thulasidas, CMD, Air India said, “Post merger, we shall have a complete support service that can handle our own requirements as well as those of other airlines.”

He added that various international and domestic airlines are in touch with Air-India for engineering facilities, which would be offered at competitive rates as compared to other countries. Air-India’s department for engineering and maintenance has expertise covering all types of aircraft, from Lockheed Constellations to Boeing 707, 747-200/300, B747-400 and the Airbus A310 and A300B4. Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel adds, “The time has come for the national carrier to enhance its engineering capacity to more and more airlines for revenue generation." For example, Bangladesh-based Biman Airlines recently signed an MoU for their engineering requirement with Air India. The operations of Air India and Indian will be merged in July, although some legal processes are to be completed yet, Thulasidas added. It may be noted that the three hangars belonging to Air India are one of the best in the country and with the technical know-how of both the merged entities, the airline can avail of services of a significant scale.

“I do not remember the names of the airlines that we are servicing currently, but with the merger, we will be extending a wide spectrum of engineering facilities to renowned airlines," says Thulasidas. However, Patel is keen to bring world class engineering and ground handling facilities in India can be gauged from the fact that the new aviation policy includes hiving off engineering services of the two state run carriers into joint ventures with foreign firms including airlines. “Once the ground handling business gets started, the merged entity may be able to effect cost saving of nearly $400 million over 10 years," said an official from the Air India department of engineering and maintenance.

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