Star Air to venture into aircraft MRO business with joint venture

Regional carrier Star Air on Monday said it is looking to enter into the aircraft MRO business in a joint venture for line and major maintenance to cater to the regional and business jets fleet.

The Bangalore-based airline, which this month completed six years of its operations, also said it is aiming to have 14 aircraft in its fleet by March this year besides expanding the network to over 100 flights.

Founded in 2019 by the Kolhapur-headquartered diversified group Sanjay Ghodawat Group with business interest in sectors such as energy, aviation, consumer products, retail, real estate and textiles, among others, Star Air has a fleet of nine Embraer aircraft, operating 44 flights per day to 23 domestic destinations.

The proposed MRO facility, the land for which is being identified, will run under a subsidiary engineering company, Star Air said, adding it will support line and major maintenance dedicated to regional aircraft and business jets.

The company, however, did not share specific details such as the investment and the potential MRO partner.

Significantly, Star Air is the first privately-owned regional airline to complete six years of operations in the last many years.

The airline has flown over 1.5 million passengers and connected 22 tier-II and Tier-III cities, it said, claiming that it has operationalised over 90 per cent of all its routes allocated to it under the Central Government's regional connectivity scheme, Udan.

"As we enter our next phase, growth, expansion and consolidation will be at the core of our strategy. By the end of this financial year, we aim to operate a fleet of 14 aircraft, consolidating our network with over 100 flights across our 23-station network to maximize efficiency, aircraft utilization and service reliability," said Simran Singh Tiwana, Chief Executive Officer at Star Air.

The airline is set to expand its network with five additional destinations and increase both commercial and RCS flights under India's UDAN scheme, it said.