South to get first aircraft maintenance facility

Following Boeing's decision to set up a maintenance, repairs and overhaul (MRO) facility for aircraft at Nagpur, Bangalore-based Auk Aviation says it has zeroed in on a location for an MRO facility and will sign an agreement with a strategic partner, who is into general aviation towards May-end.

After initially considering Bangalore, Kochi and Hyderabad, Auk has decided to set up the MRO facility in a small city in south India. The partner is a US-based firm that is working on setting up an aviation city in south India. Auk decided on the small city since it has a new airport which is underused.

In addition to this, the place is set to have an aviation city with ancillary units, a flight school, a college for producing aircraft maintenance engineers and the biggest advantage of all "" very little air traffic. Low traffic will allow for easy clearance of the aircraft under test by the MRO facility.

"The capital outlay for the MRO facility is $20 million wth a likely debt-equity ratio of 2:1," said Jitendra Bhatia, managing director, Auk Aviation.

Auk has already zeroed in on an ASEAN airline as the technical collaborator for the venture. The facility will become operational in 15 months from the time the work starts. Discussion for locking up the land is in its final phase, said Bhatia.

Auk has already obtained a no-objection certificate from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and want to enjoy the first-mover advantage.

Bangalore International Airport will be up and running by 2008 when aircraft that need the C and D checks will be able to fly to the MRO facility from the Bangalore airport. In the second phase of Auk's expansion, it plans to set up a facility in Bangalore.

As of now it is only the MRO facilities of the Air India and Indian Airlines that can do 'A' checks to 'D' checks. Almost all private airlines today fly their aircraft abroad for the C and D checks. A 'C' check costs some Rs 1.5 crore for a narrow-bodied aircraft.

As per DGCA classification, the 'A' or the basic checks have to be done after an aircraft has flown 100-150 hours, 'B' check after 700-900 hours, 'C' 3,000-4,500 hours and D check 18,000-20,000 hours. 'D' check could include the stripping down of the aircraft to check for corrosion and such other major problems.

The labour component in a 'C' check can be 3,500-4,000 man hours. Auk says the cost of labour for it will be $20 per hour as compared to $50-55 per hour abroad. With the location for the MRO facility being not far from Bangalore, Bhatia believes it can act as the satellite of the Bangalore International Airport. And, aircraft will be able to fly to the MRO facility for the necessary checks. Initially, the facility will service only narrow-bodied aircraft.