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MAS-GMR Aerospace Engineering Company (MGAE), a joint venture between Malaysian Aerospace Engineering (MAE) and GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL), a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure, is expected to be launched during this month.

The Directorate of Civil Aviation is completing the audit of the joint venture facility paving the way for airline operators to consider it for their maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) needs. The facility will be audited by the European Aviation Safety Agency next month and it is likely to attract European registered aircraft for MRO services if the stringent criteria of the EASA are met.

Special economic zone

The joint venture is a third party airframe MRO facility, the first of its kind located in the special economic zone at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. MGAE had one wide body hangar, one narrow body hangar with three bays and paint-cum-narrow body hangar with associated workshops. It is equipped with capability to provide base maintenance services, starting with narrow bodied aircraft like Airbus A320, ATR 42/72 and Boeing 737-NG as also wide body aircraft like A330 and Boeing 777.

Manpower

According to a release, MGAE has now close to 350 employees and the bulk of the manpower is made up of local Indian skilled workforce while retired Malaysian Airlines engineers and technicians are employed to kick-start the operations.

Training

In the run up for operating the MGAE facility, MAE, a subsidiary of Malaysian Airline System Bhd, trained 72 Indian engineers who underwent a two-year on the job training programme in Subang, Malaysia, and returned to Hyderabad as aircraft maintenance engineers.

Support staff of MGAE underwent familiarisation exposure in MAE. In addition, MAE provided assistance in the design of the joint venture facilities and operational readiness support.