Kingfisher in talks with Abu Dhabi firm to set up maintenance centre

Mumbai: Domestic carrier Kingfisher Airlines is holding talks with an Abu Dhabi-based engineering firm to start a private maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in the country.

"We are discussing with an Abu Dhabi based firm to establish an MRO in the country,'''' Kingfisher Airlines promoter Vijay Mallya said, adding that the venue, costs and other issues were yet to be finalised.

Mallya, who has been trying to start overseas operations but is unable to do so in view of government rules, said his airline would shortly apply for starting an airline in the US to operate flights into India. He said an application was being ''''compiled by our attorneys and it will be submitted (to the American authorities) in the next six to eight weeks''''.

Maintaining that he was ''''cautiously optimistic'''' that the Indian government would permit it to fly abroad in the near future, he said, ''''if for some reasons, they don''t, we may think of flying into India from the US and back.''''

Under the present rules, a domestic airline can launch global operations only if it has a fleet of 20 aircraft and has put in five years of operations within India.

Hoping that the Civil Aviation Ministry would review its policy, Mallya said ''''otherwise, the current position is that only one private airline, Jet Airways, is operating abroad''''.