Vijayawada Airport to Get MRO Hub, Isolation Bay.

Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) and Isolation Bay are part of the master plan for the world-class airport coming up at Gannavaram near Vijayawada and the funds required for their setting them up are being worked out.

The MRO hangars are where repairs and overhaul of aircraft are carried out. They are present only at a few airports. Shamshabad Airport and Chennai Airport have the facility.

The Vijayawada Airport, which, at present, is the principal airport for the new capital city of Amaravati, is still in the planning stage.

The MRO and isolation bay need large space and the same has been factored into the master plan for the airport. 'We have planned MROs and isolation bays to handle the largest aircraft - A698s along with expanding length and breadth of the runway in accordance with international airport norms,' Vijayawada Airport director M Raja Kishore told Express.

For the execution of the new plans, 698 acre land is required in addition to the existing 536 acre of the airport. However, the MRO is not required to address the minor technical glitches. 'They are normally at the airports, which have high-density of air traffic and require an aircraft maintenance crew round-the-clock. At Vijayawada, we do not have much air traffic that requires them, but since more air traffic is expected in the near future to the capital city of the new state, we are planning them here as well,' he explained.

For addressing minor technical problems in the aircraft, the airlines operating them maintain ground technical crews with aircraft maintenance engineers at the airport. In Vijayawada Airport, three airlines - Air India, Air Costa and Spice Jet - have such ground crews in place. It is the pilot of the aircraft who makes the ultimate decision as to whether the aircraft is ready for flight or needed to be grounded in case of technical snags.

If the aircraft gets grounded for technical snags, ground crew of the respective airlines get into action and address the issue. Normally, such technical snags are related to avionics. However, in case of a major problem, experts will be called in. Meanwhile, alternative arrangements can be made by the respective airliners.

However, it is not the case in major airports where thousands of people alight and embark every day. The MRO hangars will be ready to address any technical problem with the aircraft and make them airworthy within a short period of time. Vijayawada Airport is gearing to be ready for the day with all services at hand.


THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS