Indian Aero Ventures (IAV), the aviation venture holding company floated by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, has charted out a Rs 2,000 crore aviation gameplan. |
The broad contours are that this firm will have a presence in the entire Lifecycle Support for an aircraft, right from training pilots to MRO (Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul). Rajeev Chandrasekhar is a sitting Member of Parliament of the Rajya Sabha and post exiting BPL Mobile for an enterprise valuation of little over $1 billion, is building businesses in infrastructure, media besides aviation support. |
EADS, the parent company of Airbus, has shown faith in this by investing close to $40 million in this venture. With this strategic partner, the MRO being put up by IAV at Delhi in a joint venture with National Aviation Company of India (NACIL) is expected to have a captive customer base of NACIL. NACIL is the recently minted firm created after the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines. |
According to industry estimates, nearly 60 per cent of the 250 odd aircraft fleet owned by Indian airline operators fly Airbus jets. IAV will look at raising funds through equity and debt from 2009 at various company levels. |
Ravi Narayanan, CEO & MD, Jupiter Aviation the operating company of IAV said: "The strategy is to be the vertically integrated Aircraft life cycle support company. We are also planning a parts centre and major component overhaul centre near the international airport at Devanahalli in Bangalore which will cater to the increasing demand. Our engineering services software firm will support the above activities." |
Indian Aero Ventures will be executing end-to-end lifecycle support for an aircraft which involves modifications, component overhaul, manufacture and support. |
In addition to MRO, the company is putting up a airport at Hassan around which there will also be a sort of an aviation university which will train pilots, ATC staff as well as specialised mechanics for aircraft maintenance. |
The company recently received the concession agreement for this project which will be spread over 960 acres. This project will also have an MRO component and will cater to the spill over from the unit in Delhi. |
The MRO being up by IAV will have major competition from the GMR-Lufthansa unit being readied in Hyderabad, besides a few other units which are being planned. |
"Having Airbus as our strategic partner, we are starting with an advantage. There will be place for three major players in this sector as the number of aircraft is growing in India," Narayanan noted. |