How India's push for domestic aircraft maintenance finally took off

For a country that is the fastest-growing aviation market in the world and is already the third largest domestic market globally, India’s aviation sector has a scarcely believable Achille’s heel. For all meaningful maintenance on India’s burgeoning fleet of commercial aircraft, they need to be sent overseas. In fact, 80-90% of these services are being done in markets such as Singapore and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), say experts.

Take market leader IndiGo, for instance. Last year, its airline engineering head SC Gupta told the Ministry of Civil Aviation, or MoCA, that 90% of the firm’s expenditure on aeroplane maintenance, repair, and overhaul—known commonly in the industry as MRO—went to foreign firms. IndiGo alone, he said, allocates some $300 million towards MRO annually, meaning some $270 million flows out of the country.

Incredibly, this is despite IndiGo being one of the few domestic airlines with MRO facilities of its own. With domestic airlines set to add hundreds of planes to their fleets in the coming years, however, the aviation sector is finally gearing up to address this glaring weak spot.

On February 19, Air India owner Tata Group signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Karnataka government to set up an MRO facility in Bengaluru with an investment of Rs 1,300 crore.