Ramco wins Malaysia Airlines deal,says aviation to fuel growth

IT firm Ramco Systems bagged a big deal from Malaysia Airlines today and said it expects to get 40 per cent of its revenues from the aviation vertical this financial year.
The Chennai-based firm at present gets about 35 per cent of its revenues from the aviation segment.
"We have seen a strong growth in the aviation business, about 60 per cent year-on-year growth. Today, we have signed our biggest aviation deal with Malaysia Airlines. By March 2015, we expect 40 per cent of our revenues to come from this segment," Ramco Systems Chief Executive Officer Virender Aggarwal told PTI.

Ramco will offer its solutions for aircraft maintenance, HR and finance functions to Malaysia Airlines and support the entire engineering functions, including Firefly, MASwings and MASkargo as part of the five-year deal.
It will also support maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services.
"I can't disclose the specific amount (Malaysia Airlines) but it is about 20 per cent of our revenues in 2012-13," he said, adding that the implementation will allow the airline improve and optimise fleet management.

For the fiscal ended March 2013, Ramco's revenues stood at Rs 175.18 crore. It had registered a net loss of Rs 18.81 crore for the same period.

"Aviation is a big opportunity. There is a strong demand from Europe and Asia-Pacific, which is driving growth. The US is still soft," he said.
The US accounts for two-third of Ramco's aviation segment revenues at present.
"Going ahead, we expect the US to contribute 50 per cent, while the remaining will come from Asia-Pacific (25 per cent), Europe (15 per cent) and the Middle East and Africa (10 per cent)," Aggarwal said.
The Malaysia Airlines deal brings the total number of aircraft served by Ramco to over 2,250 worldwide.
Backed by more than 350 R&D staff, Ramco's aviation IT solutions are now used by more than 60 customers globally to optimise operations and reduce overhead costs amont other things.

The national carrier of Malaysia, Malaysia Airlines, flies around 47,000 passengers daily to 60 destinations worldwide. Its subsidiaries include Firefly, MASwings, MASkargo and MAS Aerospace Engineering.
The Group's fleet comprises 148 aircraft, including six A380s.