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Air India and GE Aviation will together invest $90 million to set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Mumbai with an investment of around $90 million

National carrier Air India and GE Aviation (GEA) will together invest $90 million to set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility to cater to GEA's GEnx-1B engines, reports PTI.

"The investment in this facility at Mumbai will be around $90 million," GE Aviation's country director Nalin Jain told reporters at Hyderabad on Thursday.

The US-based jet engines provider will invest $20 million while the balance will be pumped in by the Indian government-run airline. The foreign company's investment will be spread over seven-eight years.

The two companies today inked an agreement here, under which Air India will be licensed to perform MRO work on the GEnx-1B engine, which powers Boeing 787 aircraft.

The national carrier has ordered 27 GEnx-1B powered 787 planes.

"Air India envisages a state-of-the-art facility catering to GE 90 and GEnx engines, including a new engine-testing facility. Our strong collaboration with GE will enhance the visibility of the facility across the globe and result in India becoming one of the major engine MRO players," Air India chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav said.

As part of the agreement, GE Aviation will provide technical support to Air India.

Currently, GE has an order backlog of 250 engines from India, Mr Jain said. "We expect fresh orders (from India) next year," he added.
 

The DGCA will issue a notification for a dedicated chopper corridor at Delhi and Mumbai airports within a week

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is likely to issue a notification for a dedicated chopper corridor at Mumbai and Delhi airports within a week, a top official said on Thursday, reports PTI.

"We will issue a notification for a dedicated chopper corridor at Delhi and Mumbai airports within a week," director general of civil aviation, Nasim Zaidi, told reporters at the sidelines of an aviation conference at Hyderabad.

Once the notification is issued, (chopper) operations in the dedicated corridor will become operational, he said. The DGCA is also in the process of recruiting 550 technical staff. The entire exercise (of recruitment) should be completed within two years, he said.

"As a part of our expansion exercise, we plan to recruit 550 technical personnel and we are working on it," he said.

"In the meantime, we are hiring 200 technical officers and this exercise will be completed by September-October this year," the DGCA official said, adding that these 200 recruitments would be on a short-term contract basis.

On the formulation of Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) of pilots, Mr Zaidi said that this would be done shortly. "We will finalise the FDTL report very soon," he said.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation has provided the DGCA with guiding principles.

"Based on these, we are supposed to formulate our own (principles)," he said. Mr Zaidi, however, did not give any timeframe for the proposed FDTL, adding that "there is no hard-and-fast rule about when we should come out with this. We already have rules and these are being revised."

He said that the new FDTL would be based on feedback received from all stakeholders. "We have heard everybody—we will come out with a solution soon," he said.