Page 27 - AAA MARCH - APRIL 2018 Online Magazine

AAR PLANS to the wide range of services AAR

provides in the U.S., including, paint-
ing, lease-return modifications,
BIG IN INDIA cabin modifications and upgrades
including inflight entertainment,
and so forth. As part of full-ser-
The MRO facility will serve India’s fast- vice provision, there is also a plan
for component repair back shops
growing commercial aviation market Jay Menon immediately.

Rahul Shah, Senior Vice President
AR, a global provider ing some of the existing Indamer of AAR for strategic growth in
of aviation services to workforce. A training school under Asia and the Middle East, says
commercial airlines, has Indamer’s CAR 147 certification the Nagpur facility will support all
Ajoined hands with Indamer and the Government of India’s Skill narrow bodies, including new-gen-
Aviation, a leading aviation com- Development Programme will allow eration platforms. The staff will
pany in India, for the development hundreds of students to gain skill be Indian and include some of
of a new airframe maintenance, sets and employment in Nagpur. Indamer’s current mechanics.
repair and overhaul (MRO) facility The initial group of students will “Typically you need at least 250
in Nagpur, India. receive practical training at one of workers to get started, and that will
AAR’s MRO facilities in the United grow into more than 400 when we
The new MRO facility, which is States. have a full workload in the six initial
already under construction, will hangars,” Shah says. “We will have
initially comprise six narrow-body “We are excited to expand AAR’s more specifics in a few months.”
bays, including one bay for paint. MRO expertise outside of the
Additional phases are planned for Americas in partnership with “AAR has been embraced
a total of 16 bays, as well as com- Indamer, which has the local market by the country’s airlines and
ponent repair shops. The MRO will and cultural knowledge needed supported by the ‘Make In India’
serve India’s fast-growing com- for success,” says John Holmes, initiative, and we are proud to
mercial aviation market and is President & Chief Operating Officer,
scheduled to open in the fall with AAR. “We are looking forward to be part of the next generation
FAA, EASA and DGCA certifica- bringing our MRO experience to of aviation support in this
tions. Fully aligned with the ‘Make central India to help serve the coun- region,” says Shah.
In India’ initiative, the facility will try’s fast-growing airlines.”
employ Indian nationals, includ- Nagpur will provide services similar One reason for the partnership with
Indamer is that it is an Indian com-
pany and knows the local market
and workforce. “A training school
under Indamer’s CAR 147 certifica-
tion will be used to train engineers
under the government of India’s
skill development programme,”
Shah explains. This training will be
in addition to AAR’s own mainte-
nance and training experience, plus
the MRO’s training curriculum. The
initial group of Nagpur mechanics
will receive practical training at one
of AAR’s maintenance facilities in
the U.S. Shah says Nagpur’s ini-
tial focus will be supporting Indian
airlines, and it is working on certi-
fications by FAA, EASA and India’s
regulators. FAA and EASA certifi-
cations will enable Nagpur to also
serve airlines outside India. The
plan is to build up to 16 bays over
the next five years. “So the even-
tual plan is to support non-Indian
airlines as well,” Shah says.

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