BENGALURU—Air India is leaving no stone unturned to develop its in-house line and base maintenance capabilities. The airline recently refurbished its widebody line maintenance hangar in Mumbai, and it also plans to build a new widebody hangar in Delhi to cater to the line maintenance requirements of its ever-growing fleet.
“Delhi does not have a widebody hangar,” said Sisira Dash, chief technical officer at Air India. “If any Air India widebody aircraft has to undergo line maintenance, we have to send it to Nagpur or Mumbai facilities, leading to added cost for the airline. Hence, the new line maintenance hangar at Delhi will cater to the basic needs of line maintenance as the Air India fleet will soon swell up with the Vistara merger drawing closer."
Air India plans to have the widebody hangar in Delhi operational by 2026, he says.
Speaking to Aviation Week Network at the groundbreaking ceremony of Air India’s new MRO facility at Bengaluru International Airport (BLR), Dash also confirmed that the Bengaluru base maintenance facility will be spread across 35 acres and will have three widebody and nine narrowbody hangars.
“We will develop the capabilities in the new Bengaluru MRO starting with C checks on widebody and narrowbody aircraft. This will soon be followed by D checks on narrowbody [aircraft], gradually expanding the capabilities to D checks on widebody [aircraft],” said Dash, noting that the timeline to implement D check capability should take “a couple of years.” However, he said widebody D checks may take longer due to their complexity and the availability of skilled labor.
The Bengaluru facility has garnered an investment of INR 1400 crore (approximately $167 million) for the development of Phase I. Speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the facility will see further expansion and investment potential, including additional hangars and a new paint hangar.
Air India says the new facility will be equipped with the latest maintenance technology, including overhead teleplatforms, cranes, universal docking systems and the largest vertical lift hangar doors in the country.
Once completed, the facility is expected to create around 1,200 new jobs for skilled aviation engineers and support over 200 small- and medium-scale enterprises in Karnataka through an enhanced supply chain.
To generate more skilled labor, the airline is also planning an aviation maintenance training school in Bengaluru starting from 2025.
