AI shows interest in overhauling defence planes: 

AI shows interest in overhauling defence planes: 

Context:

The Civil Aviation Ministry has written to the Defence Ministry asking them to facilitate the servicing of defence aircraft at Air India’s Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul(MRO) facilities.

Introduction:

• Air India’s MRO unit, Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL) presently carries out MRO activities for commercial aircraft of various Boeing and Airbus.
• These facilities are based in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Nagpur, and Kolkata.

Key points:

• In the beginning of this year, AIESL had applied for a bid to service Indian Air Force’s IL-78 mid-air refueller aircraft and four Embraer-135 aircraft.
•  However, the bids were rejected because AIESL does  not possess mandatory authorization certification required to be obtained for servicing these planes from the Russian-based OEMs.
• AIESL chief executive officer H.R. Jagannath said “under the Make-in India scheme, these aircraft should be maintained in India and by doing so, India can save a lot of foreign exchange”.
•   Getting the maintenance manual details from OEMs was essential for maintaining any aircraft.

CAG report:

• The Comptroller and Auditor General(CAG),  in its report in last month, had pointed out to “several loopholes in infrastructure facilities and maintenance and repair of the existing IL fleet”
• The audit report highlighted that India had only one hangar for 14 IL-76 aircraft and one for six IL-78 planes, which are due for overhaul in 2018-19.
• The report pointed out that due to non-availability of hangars, the costly air assets remained in the open which seriously affected their serviceability and life.