WORK IN PROGRESS: MGAE has the capability to provide base maintenance services, starting with narrow bodied aircraft like Airbus A320, ATR-42/72 and Boeing 737-NG and subsequently wide-body aircraft like A330 and Boeing 777.
KUCHING: MAS-GMR Aerospace Engineering Company Ltd (MGAE), a joint-venture (JV) between Malaysian Aerospace Engineering Sdn Bhd (MAE) and GMR Hyderbad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL), is expected to be launched soon this month.
According to a press release yesterday, the JV was a third party Airframe Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility, the first of its kind of its scale, located in the special economic Zone (SEZ) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad in India.
MGAE owned one wide body hangar, one narrow body hanger with three bays, and an another paint-cum-narrow body hanger with associated workshops. It had the capability to provide base maintenance services, starting with narrow bodied aircraft like Airbus A320, ATR-42/72 and Boeing 737-NG and subsequently wide-body aircraft like A330 and Boeing 777.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in India was completing the audit of the JV facility early this month, paving the way for airline operators to consider this facility for their MRO needs.
In November, the facility would be audited by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and should the facility also meet the stringent criteria of EASA, it would be able to attract European registered aircraft for MRO services.
MGAE currently has close to 350 employees of which the bulk of the manpower is made up of local Indian skilled work force, while retired Malaysia Airlines engineers and technicians are also employed at competitive remuneration packages to kick-start the operations.
In preperation for the operations of the MGAE facility at Hyderabad this year, MAE trained 72 Indian engineers hired by MGAE. These students underwent two years on-the-job-training programme in Subang and returned to Hyderabad as aircraft maintenance engineers in MGAE. Support staff of MGAE also underwent familiarisation exposure in MAE, Subang.
In addition, MAE provided assistance in the design of the Hyderabad JV facilities and operational readiness support.
The Asia Pacific countries, together with China and India combined already account for 23 per cent of total MRO expenditure. The demand for MRO service is fastest growing in Asia given fleet orders and lower costs compared with the EUropean Union and North America.