Air India denies media reports on its maintainance licence

Mumbai, Dec 31 (UNI) National carrier Air India today said that aviation regulatory authority, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has extended its approval to maintain and repair the airline's aircraft (and other aircraft) for both Air India and erstwhile Indian up to March 31, 2008.

Reacting to the reports appeared in a section of the media, which stated that national carrier Air India may lose its maintinance licence today, a Air India spokesperson, in a statement here, described the news report as ''premature and unwarranted''.

''The two carriers have been in communication with DGCA and made known their plans of submitting the Maintenance Organization Exposition (MOE) for the National Aviation Corporation of India Limited (ACIL),'' the spokeperson said.

According the official, both Air India and erstwhile Indian had prepared a Manual (Maintenance Organization Exposition-MOE) as per the Civil Aviation Requirements' (CAR) Rule 145.

''However, after the merger of Air India and Indian, there was a need for a common MOE. Both the airlines are at the moment working on a combined manual for NACIL,'' he said.

Explaining the delay, the spokesperson said that the time available since the merger was formalised was inadequate to finalise the manual due to a big change in the organization structure and formation of SBUs (Strategic Business Units).

Hence both the airlines made an application to DGCA for extension of the date for implementation of CAR 145. In the interim, both the airlines requested DGCA for renewal of Approval of Organization under the provision of existing CAR, the spokeperson said.

DGCA has recognized the need for the time required for this exercise and hence has now renewed the Approval of both the airlines, he added in the statement.

UNI