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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.
