Proposed MRO centre at Chennai airport to be delayed further: AAI

CHENNAI: The Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) centre which was supposed to be established in 2023 at Chennai airport is still pending and is expected to get delayed further.

The AAI decided to construct an MRO centre at the backside of the Apron (loading and unloading area) and citing space crunch the AAI requested the state government to allocate the land for the MRO. The State, with the help of the Chengalpattu Revenue Department, in 2022, acquired 32,300 sq feet of land from Kaul Bazar which is on the East side of the runway. Following this, the AAI started the process of establishing the MRO and stated the MRO Centre would start its operation in Chennai at the end of 2023.

Shaurya Aeronautics signed an agreement with the AAI for this project and to administrate the centre for the next 15 years.

The purpose of the MRO is that the flights that face technical snags will be repaired very soon in order to reduce the probability of cancellation of the flights. Currently, when International flights face technical snags, the aircraft will be parked on the runway for a day or two because the parts will not be available in Chennai. But if the MRO starts operating in Chennai, the technical snag can be fixed quickly.

Now due to the delayed operation of MRO the air passengers are suffering due to untoward cancellations and flight delays.

Initially, the AAI stated that the MRO would come into operation once the integrated terminal was inaugurated. But even after a year of inauguration, the MRO has not started its operation.

Official sources from the AAI said that the MRO facility is being delayed due to some issues with the plan diagram and the new diagram is being prepared. The construction will begin soon after the diagram is finalised.