Air India to recalibrate plans on Turkish Technic's maintenance works for its wide-body planes
New Delhi, Jun 1 (PTI): Air India will look to send its wide-body planes, whose heavy maintenance is being done by Turkish Technic, to other MRO entities, as part of recalibrating its plans taking into cognisance the recent developments related to Turkiye, according to the airline's CEO Campbell Wilson.
Against the backdrop of Turkiye backing Pakistan and condemning India's strikes on terror camps in the neighbouring country in May, aviation security watchdog BCAS, on May 15, revoked the security clearance for Turkish company Celebi Airport Services India Pvt Ltd in the "interest of national security".
On May 30, aviation safety regulator DGCA granted a one-time final extension of three months to IndiGo on damp leasing of two Boeing 777 aircraft from Turkish Airlines till August 31 but directed the airline to terminate the lease within the three-month period.
When asked about some of Air India's wide-body aircraft being sent to Turkish Technic for maintenance works, the Air India CEO and MD said it is a global business and a global supply chain.
"It does take a while to adjust when the circumstances change around us but we are obviously sensitive to the national sentiment and perhaps the national wishes. So, regardless of which country we are talking about, we would clearly take cognisance of what people like us to do and expect us to do," he told PTI in an interview.
Heavy maintenance works of some of the airline's wide-body B777s and B787s are done by Turkiye-based Turkish Technic.
In the short-term, Wilson said the airline needs to send some aircraft for MRO works overseas to places in the Middle East, South East Asia, the US and in a couple of cases, business to Turkish Technic as it will take some time for India to have the capacity to do such works.
"With this most recent development, we will look to recalibrate where we sent our aircraft, reduce the amount that we are sending to Turkiye and send it to other places.
"But that does take some time because aircraft have to be maintained... we are cognisant of recent developments and we will look to adjust our plans," he said.
MRO refers to Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul.
Currently, Air India has a fleet of 191 planes, including 64 wide-body aircraft.
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Rupee falls 4 paise to 90.24 against US dollar in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee opened weak and declined 4 paise to 90.24 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday, as geopolitical uncertainties triggered by the US intervention in Venezuela fuelled the demand for the American currency.
According to forex traders, the rupee is expected to trade lower due to geopolitical development, even though a lower crude prices could provide some cushion.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 90.21 against the US dollar and lost further to trade at 90.24 against the greenback in early deals.
On Friday, the rupee settled lower by 22 paise at 90.20 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.36 per cent higher at 98.50.
The US on Saturday carried out a military operation in Venezuela an deposed President Nicolas Maduro. President Donald Trump said the US would "run" the South American country and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.07 per cent lower at USD 60.70 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index Sensex declined 135.81 points to 85,626.20 in early trade, while the Nifty was down 25.75 points to 26,302.80.
Foreign institutional investors turned net buyers, picking up equities worth Rs 289.80 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.
The latest RBI data released on Friday showed India's forex reserves jumped by USD 3.293 billion to USD 696.61 billion in the week to December 26. The overall kitty had increased by USD 4.368 billion to USD 693.318 billion in the previous reporting week.
