Air India weighs partnership with a major international airline to bid for AIESL: Report

Air India

In the event that AI Engineering Services Limited (AIESL) is put up for sale, Tata-owned Air India is mulling over a partnership with either Lufthansa Technik or Air France-KLM's engineering unit, according to a report by Economic Times.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify this news development.

Through its engineering arm SIA Engineering Company Limited, Singapore Airlines, which holds a 25.1 percent stake in Air India, will also participate in the consortium, the report added.

Also Read | AIESL divestment to be completed soon: Rajiv Bansal Aviation Secretary

Air India's erstwhile engineering arm AIESL, now owned by the government, is an MRO (maintenance, repair, and operations) unit largely servicing Air India's fleet. Air India relies on its ownership to ensure the smooth operation of its fleet of aircraft, as per the report.

In order to finalise the consortium and deepen commercial ties with Air India, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr met multiple times with top executives of Air India and Tata Sons, it added.

In order to strengthen its presence in India, Lufthansa Technik is closely evaluating the privatisation of AIESL. “India is a highly dynamic growth market and extreme growth of air traffic will drive up the demand for MRO services. We are already present and successful on the Indian subcontinent with our own facility for component services and taking a very close look at this development, to participate even more strongly in this growth market,” she said, as quoted by ET.