GE Aviation sniffing for local materials and MRO operations partner
5 January, 2007

Mumbai: Global major, GE Aviation, a manufacturer of jet engines for civil and military aircraft, is scouting for strategic tie-ups with Indian suppliers. The tie-ups would include sourcing of materials, as well as local tie-ups for engine maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO).

For MRO operations, it is expected that it will strike relationships with the government owned Indian carriers Air India and Indian.

GE Aviation has already committed itself to a $20 million investment in an engine shop, which will be set up as part of a $8.1 billion deal by Air-India to acquire 68 airplanes from Boeing. GE engines will equip Air-India's Boeing as part of this mega deal.

According to GE Aviation's India office officials, the company is experiencing outstanding demand for the company's products, with significant number of orders being placed by a number of Indian carriers, such as Air India, Indian, Jet Airways, SpiceJet, GO Air and Paramount Airways.

The company says that it is enhancing its overall engine production by more than 60 per cent between 2007 and 2009 in order to meet the growing demand for its large commercial engines, the GE90 and GEnx, as well as its well established CFM56 and CF34 engines.

Air India has ordered GE engines valued at more than $2.2 billion to equip its new Boeing 777 and 787 fleets. The order, placed in February 2006, will see deliveries of GE90-115B engines for the Boeing 777-300ERs beginning in March 2007. Air India has ordered eight Boeing 777-200LRs and 15 Boeing 777-300ERs, which will be powered by the GE90-115B engine.

Delivery of the GEnx engines for Air-India's fleet of Boeing 787-800 aircraft will begin by the third quarter of 2008. These will equip the 27 Boeing 787-8 aircraft that Air-India had ordered.

For Jet Airways, GE has committed initial deliveries of the CF6-80E engine for the Airbus A330 fleet by March 2007. The CF6-80E1 engines will power 10 Airbus A330-200 aircraft that Jet has placed orders for in February 2006. Cumulatively, the order is worth more than $300 million.

Jet Airways has also ordered 10 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, which will be powered with the GE90-115B engines. Initial deliveries are slated to begin in April 2007.