By Swati Ketkar
The entire world is watching India with interest as India is advancing rapidly to become the third-largest aviation market in the world. As passenger traffic multiplies on one hand, the government, airlines and aviation stakeholders building a strong foundation for a solid aviation ecosystem. One of the main pillars on which the aviation industry firmly stands is maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and that is exactly what is grabbing the attention of global companies lately.
So far, India’s growth in the MRO sector has been modest, but post-COVID-19 pandemic, as the revenge travel took off, new airlines emerged and the government gave a boost with new schemes and airport infrastructure India’s MRO sector also took off to a great start.
India, Engine MRO & AIESL
To give a brief background, India is now well-versed in line and airframe maintenance tasks with all the domestic aircraft now serviced in-house. However, when it comes to component and engine MRO there is a huge gap. Apart from AI Engineering Services (AIESL), no other MRO provides engine maintenance capability in India.
Interestingly AIESL is the only DGCA, EASA, and FAA engine repair station in India with full capability for CFM 56 -5B/ 7B, GE CF6-80C2, V2500 A1, PW 4000 Engines and partial Capability for GE 90 & CFM 56-5B, APUs types GTCP 131-90 GTCP 331-250H, GTCP 331-500B, PW901A and APS 5000A.
AIESL’s repair shop is fully equipped with CMM, CNC machines, a 5 – 5-axis milling machine, welding and plasma spray with a 9-axis robotic plasma spray machine. They also have a well-equipped and computerized test cell with 100,000 lbs capacity.
India currently has about 700 commercial aircraft, with the recent orders from IndiGo, Air India and Akasa Air, this number will shoot up to over 2000 in the next five years. Typically, a jet engine needs an overhaul after 5,000 flight hours or 3,000 flight cycles and it takes around 60 to 90 days for a complete jet engine overhaul. Looking at the above statistics, it is practically impossible to overhaul all the domestic aircraft engines in the country, currently. Thus, a fair few engines are overhauled in-house at the AIESL facility while the major chunk of domestic aircraft engines are sent abroad for overhaul.
But this picture is slowly changing
Safran’s big LEAP in India’s engine MRO market
Eyeing the huge gap in India’s engine MRO capacity and banking on the 2200 LEAP engines order from Air India and IndiGo, Safran decided to take matters into their own hands. Safran recently broke ground on its 15,000 square meters LEAP MRO plant in Hyderabad SEZ. Anticipated to be one of Safran’s largest MRO facilities in the world, the company has planned an investment of approximately $163 million with plans to roll out by 2025.
The facility will focus on manufacturing rotating parts for the LEAP engine from CFM International. Additionally, the Safran Electrical & Power plant in the same airport zone will produce wiring for LEAP engines and the Rafale fighter jet.
The MRO facility will operate through a 100% Indian subsidiary and will service operators from India as well as other countries in South Asia, West Asia, and Africa. Going ahead Safran intends to expand this facility for military engines used in the Indian Air Force’s Rafale and Mirage 2000 fighters to support the “Atmanirbhar Bharat” initiative.
Riding high on the Make-in-India wave, Safran is also developing partnerships and establishing deep roots within India for a well-rounded MRO ecosystem. Safran is in talks with Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge and the GMR Group to develop synergies and open new channels of recruitment and expansion.
Safran Aircraft Engines has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to develop industrial cooperation in forging parts manufacturing for commercial aircraft engines with HAL producing CFM Leap engine parts for Safran’s Bangalore facilities to support the ‘Make in India’ policy, as well as the Leap program’s ramp-up.
HAL already is a part of the Leap supply chain through its Safran HAL Aircraft Engines joint venture in Bangalore, which is dedicated to the production of aero-engines pipes.
On the defence front, Safran and Hindustan Aeronautics signed a new joint venture, one of the first in India to develop, produce and support engines destined for India’s indigenous rotorcraft, HAL’s planned 13-ton twin-engine Indian Multi-Role Helicopter (IMRH) and the naval Deck-Based Multi-Role Helicopter (DBMRH).
Safran will also co-develop a state-of-the-art 110-kilo newton thrust engine for India’s futuristic advanced medium combat aircraft twin-engine AMCA fighter project in collaboration with DRDO’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE). The estimated cost for 400 engines would be 10-12 million euros each. Safran’s offer is not subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), allowing the export of military engines to third countries without restrictive regimes.
Pratt & Whitney & Rolls-Royce to establish independent engine MROs in India?
With Safran announcing its LEAP MRO plans, other engine manufacturers like Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney are also keeping a close watch on India’s changing aviation landscape. Some media reports have sighted Rolls-Royce’s interest in opening an independent MRO facility in India eyeing the volume and scale of work. This doesn’t come as a surprise as Rolls-Royce also signed a 100-engine contract with Air India as a part of the Airbus deal. The order includes 68 Trent XWB-97 engines, with the potential for an additional 20 engines.
These engines will power the Airbus A350-1000 aircraft. Additionally, Air India also placed an order for 12 Trent XWB-84 engines, which are the exclusive engine option for the Airbus A350-900.
This is the first time that an Indian airline has ordered the Trent XWB and the deal will make Air India the largest operator of the Trent XWB-97 in the world giving the aircraft manufacturer a golden chance to set up its engine facility and establish a base in India. But the company is cautious of the market, “It’s not like you put up an MRO in every country,” Financial Express quoted Kishore Jayaraman, president of Rolls-Royce India saying. He further clarified that setting up an engine shop is an expensive proposition and that Rolls-Royce is fully committed to provide engine monitoring support to Air India for the new A350-900 order.
The Go First collapse and Pratt & Whitney dilemma
Pratt & Whitney is a different story altogether. The engine manufacturer has been in the news for a while for its GTF engine problems leading to the grounding and inspection of the A320 fleet of numerous airlines worldwide. In July 2022, much to the shock of airlines all over, Pratt & Whitney announced a rare condition in powder metal used to manufacture certain engine parts that would force an accelerated inspection of the PW1100G-JM (GTF) fleet, powering the A320neo.
In India, this crisis directly impacted the operations of Go First leading to the grounding of the airline. GO FIRST has blamed Pratt & Whitney and its GTF engine issues for their bankruptcy. Global experts estimate that the overall damage caused to the airline by the faulty engines at more than INR 10,000 crore.
As per sources IndiGo has grounded over 30 aircraft in the last quarter of financial year 2023 due to issues with Pratt & Whitney engines, taking the total number of grounded PW-powered jets to around 80 planes. Apart from IndiGo, a number of aircraft from SpiceJet are also grounded.
Looking at the seriousness of the issue, the Indian regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA, India) stepped in and in November 2023, literally urged Pratt & Whtiney to set up its own engine MRO in India to deal with the expanding crisis. Responding to DGCA’s demand, media reports state that Ashmita Sethi, President and Country Head, Pratt & Whitney, India neither agreed nor denied the idea of setting up an MRO in India. She acknowledged India’s importance as a market, affirming commitments to enhance investments and considering the feasibility of an MRO based on various factors, including the local business climate and logistics associated with importing parts.
Thus, looking at the above timelines, the chances of OEMs like Rolls-Royce as well as Pratt & Whitney setting their own engine MRO in India is just a matter of time. However, with the transfer of technology under wraps how much of this will actually help the third-party MROs in India or in strengthening the overall MRO ecosystem of the country remains to be seen.
Meanwhile responding to the collapse of Go FIRST, Piyush Srivastava, Senior economic advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) noted that this crisis would have been averted if India had more engine MROs. He was speaking at an industry event in New Delhi, last year.
The picture of the Defence engine MRO is a lot better than the civil sector. Just recently Safran has agreed to 100% transfer of technology (ToT) for the Shakti jet engine deal throughout various stages of the project including design, development, certification to production. This in itself is a huge milestone for jet engine manufacturing and overhaul in India and is viewed as a game-changer for India going ahead.
All-in-all engine MRO in India in the civil MRO sector is taking baby steps towards development while we can safely say that defence engine MRO has advanced to the adolescent stage. But still, a lot needs to be done on this front, with adequate backing and support from the government, OEMs and airlines very soon, India will be independent in terms of the engine as well as component MRO. The only question is WHEN? – Only time will tell!
Swati Ketkar is an aviation journalist and writer, currently freelancing for various domestic and international publications. Although she covers stories across the aviation spectrum her main focus and area of expertise is MRO.
