Air India, SIA Engineering To Set up Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Joint Venture in India

Air India and SIA Engineering Company plan to set up a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) joint venture in India as both sides seek to strengthen their collaboration.

SIA Engineering Company (SIAEC) is part of the Singapore Airlines Group, which owns a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India.

On Friday, Air India and SIAEC inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore a collaboration in MRO, which will contribute to the development of India as a global aviation MRO hub.

The airline already has collaborations with SIAEC to strengthen maintenance and component support for its growing fleet and network expansion.

"The latest MoU aims to deepen the partnership between both parties by tapping on SIAEC's MRO and technical expertise to bolster Air India's established airline operations network by jointly developing a world-class MRO ecosystem in India.

"This collaboration could include the potential formation of an MRO Joint Venture in India, serving the increasing needs of the Indian and regional aviation markets," Air India said in a release on Friday.

In May 2024, Air India roped in SIAEC as the base maintenance strategic partner for the development of the airline's base maintenance facilities in Bengaluru. Both sides also have a 12-year Inventory Technical Management (ITM) agreement for extensive component support coverage for Air India's current fleet of Airbus A320 family aircraft. The latter pact was signed in February 2024.

Tata Group acquired loss-making Air India from the government in January 2022, and later, Singapore Airlines Group snapped up a stake in the airline.

In January this year, Air India signed a commercial cooperation framework agreement with Singapore Airlines, under which the carriers will explore ways to improve connectivity between Singapore and India, among other efforts.

India is one of the world's fastest-growing domestic aviation markets.