| Lufthansa Technik plans repair facility in Hyderabad |
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Lufthansa Technik, the world's leading provider of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) for planes, components and engines, plans an MRO facility here to cater to the growing aviation sector in India.
The facility will be located at the upcoming Hyderabad international airport at Shamshabad on the city outskirts. The group will invest Rs.1 billion ($20 million) for a two-bay hangar and its state-of-the-art workshops.
The facility, the first of its kind in India, will provide base maintenance services for narrow-body aircraft like Airbus A320 family and Boeing 737 aircraft, including 737 Classic and 737 NG.
August W. Henningsen, chairman of the executive board of Lufthansa Technik AG, told reporters here Friday that as the first international MRO provider to set up an Indian base, the firm has teamed up with the GMR Group, which is developing the Hyderabad international airport.
Lufthansa Technik will be the majority stakeholder in the company, holding more than 75 percent of its equity share capital while GMR will hold the remaining equity. The companies, however, are still in the process of working out the details. The construction of the 20,000 sq metre facility will begin in 2007. Henningsen said the facility was expected to commence operations by the end of 2008 with two parallel lines to serve the maintenance requirements of the rapidly growing narrow-body fleet of Indian carriers.
He said the facility would benefit existing and future airline customers in India. Though the facility will be focussed on the Indian aviation industry, as a member of Lufthansa Technik's existing worldwide MRO market of 28 companies, it will also serve customers from other countries.
He said with more than 400 airplanes on order, the Indian aviation market is one of the fastest growing in the world. The new facility would complement the existing MRO support being provided to new as well as existing fleets in India. Currently, the airplanes are being taken to Middle East or other locations in Asia for MRO support. The existing customers of Lufthansa Technik include Jet, Air Sahara and Kingfisher and it is in talks with other airlines, including Indian Airlines.
'Hyderabad's geographic location makes it a strategic hub for domestic and international air traffic - a vantage point for the first dedicated third party MRO facility in India,' said T. Srinagesh, chief operating officer of GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd.
The Hyderabad international airport is scheduled to launch its commercial operations from March, 2008.
'We expect Hyderabad to emerge as new aviation cluster with some of the country's best qualified engineers and technicians,' said Dominik Wiener Silva, designated managing director of the new company.
Lufthansa Technik, a part of the Lufthansa Aviation Group, has an annual turnover of $5 billion from the MRO business. Major business segments of Lufthansa Group have their presence in India. Lufthansa Passenger Airline is already flying 70 aircraft per week to and from India.
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