The Hindu Business Line : SIA Engg team to call on IA chief for talks on maintenance facility

WITH a change of guard in the top echelons of Indian Airlines, a team from SIA Engineering Company Ltd will be visiting the state-owned airline shortly to "revisit" the tie-up between the two companies for setting up a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in India.

The two parties had, in October 2003, reached an in-principle understanding with IA to form a joint venture company to offer MRO services.

"We would like to talk about the progress that the project has made with the new management team. We would like to brief the new CMD of what was discussed earlier," the Vice-President, Business Development, SIA Engineering, Mr Leck Chet Lam, said. At present, SIA Engineering provides total maintenance solutions to more than 80 international airlines from the US, Europe, West Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. The proposal for setting up the project was initiated during the tenure of former CMD, Mr Sunil Arora, who demitted office as the airline's CMD late last week. The proposed MRO facility would look after the maintenance of the entire fleet of IA.

"We are in the midst of moving from the memorandum of understanding stage to the joint venture stage. As of now the project is not off," officials said.

It is likely to take 3-5 months from the time the project is cleared for the venture to become fully operational, officials indicated.

The joint venture will offer airframe maintenance services from its facility in Delhi, line maintenance services at 10 major airports in India, as well as component repair and overhaul services, a statement issued earlier had said.

Indian Airlines is to hold majority stake in the joint venture that is to be managed by SIA Engineering.

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