Staff crunch hits Air India’s MRO plans
Air India’s plans to grow its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business faces a big risk as it faces a severe shortage of aircraft engineers. Air India hived off its engineering department into a separate unit last January to tap business from other airlines. Primarily, it still caters to Air India’s aircraft maintenance but aims to double its third party business to Rs 130 crore in FY 17. Air India’s MRO unit has around 600 aircraft maintenance engineers and faces a shortage of around 100-150 personnel. Recently it hired around 100 of its retired engineers on contract but still the shortage persists. “Over the next two-three years we will require 250 engineers and the shortage could become a bottleneck to our growth,” said H R Jagannath, CEO of Air India Engineering Services Limited. Part of the additional manpower will be utilised to maintain new aircraft being inducted in Air India’s fleet. But hiring engineers is also proving difficult as it essentially means poaching from another airline. The fresh hiring is also to cater to 15-20 employees who are retiring each month. It takes two-four years for an aircraft technician to secure a type rating and maintenance engineers license and Air India has also begun offering on-job training to technicians from other companies, enabling them to apply to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for licence. “We are seeking support of DGCA and Boeing for the training programme. The government too should support the MRO sector by offering five year tax holiday, ” he said. Earlier this year, Air India’s MRO began carrying out ‘C’ check (heavy maintenance check) on Jet Airways Boeing 777 aircraft. It has also signed a memorandum of understanding with SpiceJet to maintain its Boeing 737 and efforts are underway to secure European Aviation Safety Agency certification for MRO facilities in Nagpur and Thiruvananthapuram. The MRO unit will also start test and minor repairs of General Electric engines which power Boeing 777 planes at its Nagpur unit later this year and complete overhaul of engines will be carried out from next year. The engine overhaul facility, the first of its kind in India, will significantly boost the MRO business as it can undertake engine repairs of all General Electric engine customers. Jordie Benn Authentic Jersey
BookMyCharters wants to be the Uber of Indian skies
A Mumbai-based startup is changing the way millionaires book private jets and negotiate city traffic to reach airport in time. Traditional methods of booking chartered flights done through brokers take up to 48 hours or longer. Enter BookMyCharters, the long-drawn process ends in a click. Travellers get fare, aircraft type and availability and can make bookings in under a minute. The startup, which wants to be the Uber of India’s chartered aviation skies, lets fliers generate quotes and book private jets real-time — much like Uber the American taxi aggregator it is trying to emulate. “It’s like booking a cab,” says Sachit Wadhwa, co-founder of BookMyCharters. The cost for a hiring an 8-seater private jet from Delhi to Chandigarh could come to as low as Rs 30,000, a search on the company’s website showed. BookMyCharters, led by parent Baron Aviation, launched in December 2015 and offers services across 22,000 routes, 150 locations and has 40 diverse aircraft within India. In cities like Mumbai, it also organises a pick-up from a nearby helipad and then off to Juhu Airport, from where a private chauffeur escorts fliers to the jet. J.R. Richard Authentic Jersey
Air India posts operational profit for first time in 8 years
Air India posted an operational profit of Rs.105 crore in 2015-16 compared with an operational loss of Rs.2,636 crore in 2014-15 due to an increase in traffic growth. This is the first time the national carrier has posted an operational profit since it was merged with erstwhile Indian Airlines in 2007, the financial results of 2015-16 cleared by the airline’s auditors and approved by its Board showed. A sharp decline in aviation turbine fuel prices helped it bolster operational profit to more than Rs.100 crore in 2015-16 even as the airline was earlier expecting an operational profit of Rs.8 crore. Mike Cammalleri Womens Jersey
Foreign registered aircraft may soon fly in India
In an attempt to cut cost, improve ease of doing business and promote regional connectivity, national and regional carriers in India may soon be allowed to use foreign-registered aircraft for charter and regular airline flights. The Ministry of Civil Aviation held a meeting on Thursday, which was attended by Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha, secretary R N Choubey and acting Directorate General of Civil Aviation chief B S Bhullar among others. “Some countries like US allow foreign registered aircraft to operate in their territory. Here an Indian company has to first get the aircraft registered in India after which the aircraft can be used by it for regular or charter flights. We plan to remove this requirement as Indian domestic air traffic is growing at the fastest pace globally and we are promoting regional connectivity in a big way that will also require planes,” an official was quoted saying by Times of India. Under the current system, an Indian company can only use aircraft for regular or charter flights only after it gets the aircraft registered in India. Exemption from the current rule will make it easier for the foreign-registered aircraft owner to take back the aircraft in case of a dispute with the airline operating the aircraft. Since there are less chances of planes getting stuck in India, the leasing companies could also reduce the rentals and thus help domestic carriers. L.C. Greenwood Womens Jersey