Air Deccan's first hangar in Chennai

Bangalore, Mar 31 (UNI) The country's first low cost carrier, Air Deccan, today commenced work on its first hangar at the Chennai Airport.

The world-class hangar would provide basic and medium level maintenance checks and be ready in about eight to 12 months, an Air Deccan release here said.

A team of engineers from Air Deccan had visited various facilities in other countries before zeroing in on a design that was in line with international standards.

Speaking after the Bhumi puja for the facility, Air Deccan Managing Director Capt Gopinath said the hangar was the beginning of various investments Air Deccan proposed to make to build its infrastructure.

He said the hangar facility would not only strengthen the engineering infrastructure, but also reduce the maintenance expenses and ensure timely availability of hangar space. Currently the ATR checks and maintenance were carried out at a leased hangar in Hosur and major checks and maintenance on the Airbus at overseas facilities, he added.

Capt Gopinath said it was imperative to have such infrastructure for reducing the downtime of the aircraft and increase on time performance. ''This hangar will augment the maintenance needs arising out of the increased number of fleet and expansion plans for Air Deccan in the coming months. We are also focusing on developing Chennai as a hub for our South operations. We already have 36 flights and five aircraft based out of Chennai'' he added, UNI VK RG GM1756