IndiGo operator to build MRO facility at Bengaluru airport

Leading budget carrier IndiGo operator InterGlobe Aviation Ltd would build a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility at the Bengaluru airport on the city's northern outskirts, said the airport operator on Thursday.

"We have entered into a 20-year agreement with InterGlobe to build the MRO facility on our land by March 2020," said the airport operator Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), a private-public consortium, in a statement here.

The MRO facility will be built over five acres of land the airport operator has sub-leased to InterGlobe in its sprawling campus at Devanahalli, about 40km northwest of the city.

"The 13,000-square metre hangar will accommodate two narrow body aircraft at a time with support infrastructure, including a QEC (Quick Engine Change) facility, shop warehouse and engineering offices for repair and maintenance," said the statement.

Both operators, however, did not mention the cost of setting up the MRO facility, its revenue-sharing model and if it would be dedicated to IndiGo fleet or other carriers who operate services at the country's third largest airport after New Delhi and Mumbai.

"With its strategic location, the Kempegowda International Airport will play an important role going forward. Hence we decided to build a MRO hangar as the core of our maintenance centre in southern India," said IndiGo Chief Operating Officer Wolfgang Prock-Schauer in the statement.

With a fleet of 200 aircraft, the Gurugaon-based low-cost airline operates 1,300 flights daily and connects 52 domestic and 16 overseas destinations the world over.

The airline has 158 departures from Bengaluru airport daily, with eight on overseas routes.

The operator has its first MRO facility at the Delhi international airport.

"We should offer a bouquet of services to facilitate the growth of our airline partners like IndiGo, which is one of the fast-growing at our airport. Its MRO facility here will give it more connectivity and open up new markets," said BIAL Chief Executive Hari Marar in the statement.

The over decade-old greenfield airport served around 32 million passengers in the 2018 calendar year.

--IANS

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