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Mahindra Aerospace, utility aircraft and aerostructure manufacturing arm of the Mahindra Group, plans to enter the small aircraft market in India. It is to do so with an eight-seater utility aircraft (GA8), currently beng made at its Australian facility.
The company awaits approval from the director general of civil aviation (DGCA) to begin selling it. It is being made at its Melbourne facility. The company is confident of selling at least 25 aircraft annually, a top official said.
“More than six months ago, we applied to DGCA for approval to fly eight-seater aircraft. They have allowed flying of only five members on board. Already, 32 countries have certified this aircraft,” said Hemant Luthra, president of Mahindra Systech and member of the group executive board of M&M Ltd.
Mahindra Systech, a division of the $16.2-billion Mahindra Group, is a ‘design to delivery’ supplier of comprehensive component products and engineering services.
Mahindra’s utility aircraft business is sold in 32 countries. Apart from making the GA8, it is developing the GA10, a 10-seat turboprop derivative, for market entry in 2014.
The company is also awaiting FAR23 certification, allowing it to become a Tier-1 supplier of components and aerostructures to original equipment makers (OEMs). The company is currently classified as a Tier-2 supplier of components and aerostructures.
Spanish collaborator
Besides supplying parts to its own facility in Australia, the company will supply these to Aernnova Group of Spain. Mahindra Aerospace on Monday announced the signing of a technology partnership with Aernnova, a Tier-1 supplier of aerostructures.
Under the partnership, Aernnova has taken a 24 per cent stake in Mahindra Aerostructures, a company under the fold of Mahindra Aerospace, for Rs 48 crore. Aernnova would provide training and transfer technology to Mahindra; the two would work together to develop capabilities and meet market demand.
“Our vision is to become a very robust part of the global aerospace supply chain for OEMs in the next few years. We have capacity to make utility aircraft and we want to become a major player in the global aerospace industry,” said Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra.
New facility
Mahindra Group also inaugurated their new facility to manufacture aerostructures and components at Narasapura, about 55 km from here. It has invested Rs 150 crore on the new facility, which will start with the manufacture of aerostructures to be supplied to Gipps Aero, based in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley in Australia. Mahindra Group acquired Gipps Aero about three years earlier.
“This is our first step towards becoming a Tier-I supplier to OEMs. Simultaneously, we are going acquire capabilities to manufacture utility aircraft at our facility near Bangalore. In the next two years, we intend to build the capability to manufacture the eight-seater aircraft currently made in our Australian facility,” Luthra told Business Standard.
He said once the DGCA approval comes, the company would commence sales. “If things go as planned we should be able to shift the manufacture of the eight-seater aircraft to Bangalore from Australia. Te Australian subsidiary will focus on GA10 and GA18 aircraft," he said.
The new facility near this city has the capacity to deliver about Rs 250 crore in annual revenue in the next three to four years. Initially, the company plans to commence manufacturing activities with smaller parts and sub-assemblies, and then move to larger and more complex ones.
IN EXPANSION MODE
* Mahindra Systech, a division of the $16.2-billion Mahindra Group, is a supplier of comprehensive component products and engineering services
* Mahindra’s utility aircraft business is sold in over 32 countries
* Besides supplying parts to its own facility in Australia, the company will supply these to Aernnova Group of Spain
* The company is awaiting FAR23 certification, to become a Tier-1 supplier of components and aerostructures to original equipment makers
