Air India’s MRO in Bengaluru will be ready by early 2026, says CEO Wilson

Air India MD and CEO Campbell Wilson speaks during the ground breaking ceremony of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) by Air India Group at Bangalore International Airport Limited in Devanahalli, Bengaluru on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: PTI

Air India Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Campbell Wilson said that Air India Group’s new mega MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) facility in Bengaluru will be ready and operational by early 26.

Addressing the media here on Wednesday, he said the MRO facility to be built with an investment of Rs 1,400 crore would provide employment to 1,200 people.

MROs typically employ people with a diverse skill set, including avionics systems engineers, test professionals, technicians, digital problem-solvers, additive manufacturing experts, professionals with soft skills and specialists with industry-specific expertise, mechanics and technicians.

The upcoming MRO facility, to be built on 35 acres of land at Bengaluru International Airport, will become a key hub for aircraft maintenance operations of Air India Group airlines in the region, especially as the group undergoes transformation to modernise its fleet and expand its domestic and global connectivity, the company said.

Earlier, at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the MRO, Mr Wilson said, “India’s aviation sector is on the path of development and Air India is playing a leading role in it.”

When asked about the status of Air India’s conversion exercise, he said, “We will, as we have said earlier, refit all the old aircraft. The narrow-body refit is going well and we should have all the narrow-body aircraft, that is about 87% of the fleet, ready by June next year.”

About the wide-body fleet, he said Air India is completely dependent on the supply chain of business and first class seats, which is a cluttered market at the moment. “All airlines are facing the challenge of getting access to these better seats. We will start a retrofit programme (for wide bodies) next year, but we are a little bit at the mercy of seat deliveries,” he said.

According to Mr Wilson, although the refurbishment of wide-body aircraft will not begin before next year, about a third of Air India’s wide-body fleet is relatively new.

Regarding inflight entertainment, he said passengers can now stream over 2,000 hours of entertainment on their devices. This is now available on all wide-body aircraft and will be gradually rolled out to all narrow-body aircraft over the next few months.

He stressed that the entertainment systems in all older aircraft have been upgraded. ”Every flight from Delhi to Heathrow, Mumbai to Heathrow, Delhi to New York, Mumbai to New York and gradually to other cities will be operated by our most modern aircraft,” Mr Wilson said.

Talking about the integration of the group and the merger with Vistara, he said all the four airlines in the group were operating with different processes. ”So, we have different manuals, including the regulatory manual. We have spent 18 months to harmonise all those processes and bring all the airlines on a common operating set of processes,” Mr Wilson said.