Air France-KLM Launches Component MRO In India

Mumbai: India will gain its first component repair shop in a joint venture between Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance (AFI KLM E&M) and Mumbai-based Max Aerospace and Aviation Ltd.’s Max MRO Services.
Construction is to start early this year and finish in the first quarter of 2013, says AFI KLM E&M President Franck Terner. Terms were not disclosed, but the company, as yet unnamed, is expected to start operations with a 10,000-sq.-meter (108,000-sq.-ft.) facility.
Plants are under construction in Bengaluru and Nagpur, which offer tax-free zones established to encourage industry. Nagpur is home to the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) center and taxiway Boeing is establishing for Air India.
“Given the high tax structure [in India], till the facility is set up, the company will import only the most needed components to give us economies of scale,” says Bharat Malkani, chairman and managing director of Max MRO Services. Max Aerospace’s defense arm recently assembled a Korea Aerospace Industries KT-1 trainer in India for trials.
Terner says estimates of $100 million in annual revenues for component repairs are “grossly underestimated. We expect the business to grow at 14% per annum for the next 10 years.”
17/01/11 Neelam Mathews/Aviation Week

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Categories: Foreign Jan 2011, Indian Aviation- In General Jan 2011, New Jan 2011