New Delhi. 11 December 2016. The Indian Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) industry is worth USD 800 million in 2016 and is expected to grow to over USD 1.5 billion by 2020. However, currently India constitutes 1 percent of the global MRO market worth USD 45 billion.

The measured steps that the Indian government has taken in moving towards the open sky policy, increase in military, civil and business aircraft fleet in the country, the growing preference for air travel by India’s largely underserved middle class, and the focus by industry to optimise cost of aircraft operations, provides a strong foundation for the Indian

MRO industry to strengthen its capability to meet global standards of excellence. Setting up an MRO is highly capital intensive with a long break-even time. Operating a credible MRO is highly dependent on investing in the right manpower which is regularly trained and optimally utilised with a strong focus on quality and turnaround time.

It also requires continuous investment in tooling, certification from safety regulators such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and global OEMs such as Airbus, Bell Helicopter, Boeing, Bombardier Aerospace, Dassault Aviation, Gulfstream Aerospace, Honeywell and others, in addition to certification from the local regulator in order to stay relevant in today’s competitive global environment.