Indian conglomerate Adani Group has signed a definitive agreement to acquire domestic maintenance provider Air Works for INR 400 crores (approximately $48.2 million).

Air Works—among the country's most established MROs, having been operating since 1951—covers maintenance across 27 Indian cities. It expanded overseas earlier this year by setting up line maintenance in Dubai.  

The company has six maintenance bays and employs a workforce of more than 6,000 people.

Its commercial aircraft capabilities include base maintenance for ATR 42/72, Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft from its facilities in Mumbai, Delhi, Hosur and Kochi. It also carries out lines of maintenance on several military aircraft.

Anand Bhaskar, managing director and CEO of Air Works Group, says: “India has the potential to become the MRO hub for the region across defense and civil aircraft. It is a wonderful opportunity for Air Works and its employees to be subsumed under Adani Defence & Aerospace platform. The government’s policy measures and initiatives, including the convergence of civil and defense MRO, would create economies of scale and huge employment opportunities.”

Ashish Rajvanshi, CEO of Adani Defence & Aerospace, says of its acquisition: "Air Works has impeccable and proven capabilities and over its 70-year aviation legacy has successfully delivered several India-first and industry-first projects. Combine this with the Adani Group's capabilities and what we get is an entity that truly represents what an Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) in a critical sector should look like."

The acquisition by Adani Defence Systems and Technologies is part of the group's strategy of growing its portfolio. 

The Adani Group ventured into the aviation sector in 2019 by winning bids for six airports. In 2021, the group took over the management of Mumbai International Airport and Navi Mumbai Airport.

The group handles more than 20% of the passenger traffic in India. Adani Group recently acquired Bengaluru-based Alpha Designs, an aerospace firm. 

Rajvanshi continues: “Given India’s growth trajectory and the government’s focus to network the nation through a massive mesh of air connectivity, it is inevitable that the primary growth of India’s airline and airport sector lies ahead of it."

"Therefore, the MRO sector has a crucial role to play in both the defense and civilian aerospace sectors," says Rajvanshi. "Add to this the ongoing modernization program to make India a large market for defense aircraft, and what emerges is one of the most exciting, comprehensive, scale and digital MRO services within the boundaries of the nation.”

The Adani Group is also setting up India’s first comprehensive aircraft MRO facility in Nagpur, and offers aircraft maintenance services in partnership with Indamer. 

In the annual report for 2021-22, the Adani Group emphasized the critical importance of the MRO sector to the Indian and global aerospace and defense industry. 

"The Indian MRO industry is expected to grow from $1.7 billion in 2021 to $4 billion by 2031, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.9% against the expected global CAGR of 5.6%," it stated.