Indian MRO firm Haveus Aerotech wants to capitalise on the booming local commercial aircraft fleet, and establish itself as a premier domestic maintainence provider.

Speaking to FlightGlobal, Haveus's chairman and managing director Anshul Bhargava says that the company's focus is component MRO, namely for wheels and brakes on the Airbus A320, Boeing 737 and Bombardier Q400. It also provides non-destructive testing and avionics MRO.

"Our strategy is to get hold of the component MRO market using the booming Indian aircraft fleet... and to expand our customer base."

Bhargava says that Haveus's airline customers include SpiceJet, Vistara and IndiGo.

Incorporated in December 2014, Haveus began operations in January 2016 at its 30,000 square feet facility in Gurgaon, southwest of New Delhi.

It recently announced that it will establish an avionics MRO centre in Gurgaon, which will have the capability to process over 3,000 avionics components. The centre will also have design capability for the retrofit and modification of aircraft avionics systems such as weather radars, GPS systems and flight data recorders.

Bhargava declines to reveal the company's market share, but says that it targets to have "around 40% of the total component MRO for wheel and brakes... in the next four years".

He adds that Haveus is developing capability for narrowbody and widebody line and base maintenance, before moving on to engine MRO for commercial aircraft, and then attaining the European Aviation Safety Agency Part 21 certification for design and modification work.

"We will acquire our new capabilities in a phased manner, but we want to first concentrate on our component business."

The MRO firm, however, is looking to conduct its first line and base maintenance work at a hangar it owns in the Eastern city of Jamshedpur.

Haveus will also look to grow its line and base maintenance capabilities across India, and has identified three more hangars for expansion: Hissar in the north for narrowbodies, Ahmedabad in the west for general aviation and Bengaluru in the south for widebodies.

Bhargava says that the company will undergo an EASA Part 145 component MRO audit in the first week of September.

"When we are approved, we will look to get more business from Asia – Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, UAE. There are great opportunities from these countries."

Bhargava believes New Delhi will continue to liberalise the aviation sector through an improved tax regime.

"The Indian government has been very hard at work trying to make tax reforms…. and I believe that more MRO business will come to India soon."

At present, local MRO companies must pay a 12% service tax, a 19% import duty on spare parts and a 13% royalty fee for work done at airports owned by the Airports Authority of India. High taxes have caused local airlines to conduct their MRO work outside of India, with a reported $700 million in business going to Middle Eastern, Sri Lankan and Southeast Asian MROs.

Source: Cirium Dashboard

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