Airbus signs deal with GMR group to provide aircraft maintenance training

 European plane manufacturer Airbus has signed a contract with the GMR Group to provide aircraft maintenance training to young engineers, a statement said on Tuesday.

The GMR Group will provide the fully integrated aircraft maintenance engineer (AME) licensing programme at the GMR School of Aviation in Hyderabad, said the joint statement.

"The four-year course will include two years of classroom training and a two-year training in maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) at GMR Aero Technic in Hyderabad followed by aircraft type training," it said.

According to the contract, Airbus will provide the necessary software and courseware in the form of trainee handbooks, examination database, online access of "Airbus customised basic training modules and Airbus Competence Training (ACT) for Academy media package", which is the technical training material required for the courses, it noted.

In addition, Airbus will also provide training to the instructors of the GMR Group along with assessment of the training centre, it added.

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GMR Aviation Academy signs MoU with NFSU to focus on aviation forensics and cyber security

GMR Aviation Academy has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with National Forensic Science University (NFSU) to develop and extend educational programmes in the field of aviation forensics and cyber security, a statement said on Wednesday.

As per the MoU, the GMR Group will sponsor domestic and international students in the field of aviation cyber security with one-year of onsite training at GMR Airports, its statement said.

GMR Airports, part of the GMR Group, manage and operate airports in Hyderabad and Delhi in India.

A research centre, certified by NFSU, will be set up in the campus of GMR Aviation Academy in Hyderabad, as per the MoU, the statement noted.

“NFSU scholars can pursue a full-time PhD in aviation forensics and cyber security domain at this unique centre with research and development opportunities in the live airport environment,” it mentioned.

Technology and digitization have brought many advantages to the aviation sector, but at the same time, these have created challenges in managing cyber vulnerabilities in such a complex environment, said Ashwani Lohani, CEO of GMR Services Business.

The aviation industry has been an attractive target for cyber attackers.

“Especially after the COVID-19, cyber attacks and threats have increased many folds, and organizations are in search of cyber security and forensics experts to create a cyber shield against any kind of cyber threats,” Lohani noted.

There is a huge shortage of trained cyber security and forensics experts in the country, and in the world, he mentioned.

“In fact, there is a vast opportunity for such cyber security professionals, and bulk-hiring requirements exist for these professionals once they successfully complete these courses,” he noted. 

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Ultimate Kho Kho: GMR And Adani Group Acquired Franchises

 

GMR and Adani Group have acquired the Telangana and Gujarat franchises in the Ultimate Kho Kho League (UKKL), which is set to launch this year to promote the local sport.

The league, which is being promoted by Amit Burman, chairman of Dabur Group, in collaboration with the Kho Kho Federation of India (KKFI), aims to revolutionize the indigenous sport of Kho-Kho by adopting a modern-day professional structure that will bring the fast-paced action to the fans' living rooms.

GMR Sports has signed the Telangana team to increase the popularity of Kho-Kho in South India and further promote it.

"Since its inception more than 15 years ago, the company has done pioneering work in growing popular sports such as cricket and other indigenous sports such as kabaddi and wrestling in India and around the world. With a vision to develop talent at the grassroots level, it has invested in providing access to professional sports by establishing sports training academies across India," said Kiran Kumar Grandhi, Corporate Chairman of GMR Group.

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Delhi Airport to become net zero carbon emission by 2030

On the occasion of World Environment Day, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) -- a joint venture which is formed as a consortium between the GMR Group, the Airports Authority of India, and Fraport AG & Eraman Malaysia -- announced the launch of the Green Transportation Program at the airport and in the surrounding area. 

The Green Transportation Program aims at helping DIAL make a rapid transition to green mobility, cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions considerably, and enabling Delhi Airport to achieve "Net Zero Carbon Emission Airport" status by 2030.

As part of the ambitious plan, DIAL has chosen to phase in electric vehicles (EVs) on the ground and is set to introduce 62 electric cars for its airside activities in the first phase, which will help reduce GHG emissions by around 1,000 tonnes per year. These vehicles would be deployed within 3-4 months. 

DIAL will also establish high-voltage and fast-charging stations at critical places in order to address the requirements of these vehicles as well as other airport stakeholders. Moreover, as a part of this initiative, and to promote EV adoption at the airport, DIAL also announced its plans to work with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) to make essential improvements to EVs in order to install airport-specific equipment, DIAL said in a statement.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Executive Officer of DIAL, Videh Kumar Jaipuriar said, “DIAL has set a target to make Delhi Airport a Net Zero Carbon Emission Airport by 2030, and is continuously working to achieve this goal. We are planning to eliminate all the light vehicles of petrol and diesel in a phased manner from Delhi Airport and use electric vehicles instead. The adoption of electric vehicles for managing airport operations is a step forward. It is a first-of-its-kind initiative by any Indian airport to ensure a clean transportation environment. The electric mobility, when packaged with appropriate ground support technology and infrastructure, presents a viable alternative in reducing vehicular emissions at the airport.” 

Other initiatives that will also be implemented as part of the DIAL's plan to become a "Net Zero Carbon Emission Airport" by 2030 include energy efficiency and conservation, green buildings and infrastructure, renewable energy utilization, and operational excellence programmes with airlines and airport stakeholders, the statement said.

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RFID-enabled tag to track check-in luggage at Delhi airport

The Delhi airport has introduced personalised baggage tag, enabled by radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, which will give passengers real-time information about when and on which belt is their check-in luggage arriving in the terminal, a statement said on Wednesday.

Delhi’s  Indira Gandhi International Airport is the first airport in India to introduce this facility, its operator GMR Group - led DIAL claimed in a statement. A passenger can purchase this tag at the airport, scan the QR code on it and register it on the website bag.hoi.in, the statement mentioned. “Once the tag is registered, all a passenger has to do is to tie the tag or place it into their check-in luggage,” it noted. 

Passengers will start receiving SMS alerts with the details of baggage on their registered mobile number when their baggage arrives at the Delhi Airport, it said.  “They will get the message on their mobile that their luggage is ready to be picked up at the designated baggage belt,” the statement noted.

The ‘BAGG TRAX’ tags will soon be commercially launched for flyers at the Delhi airport. Presently, as part of the pilot project, BAGG TRAX tags are given to select frequent flyers at Terminal 3 only, it said. Once commercially launched, flyers can buy it in the departure sections of any of the terminals at the Delhi airport, it noted.

BAGG TRAX will not only help the domestic and international arrival passengers but also those in transit to track their checked-in baggage, the DIAL statement said. 

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GMR Hyderabad Airport launches help desk to aid migrants

The GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL), in partnership with Telangana Overseas Manpower Company Limited (TOMCOM) on Wednesday launched a 24*7 migrant help desk dedicated to vulnerable migrants traveling abroad.

The help desk will especially cater to Kuwait and Qatar on a trial basis.

The desk will help and guide vulnerable migrants like domestic workers, housemaids, and laborers about safe, legal migration, and the paperwork needed for emigration clearance.

Speaking about the initiative CEO-GHIAL Pradeep Panicker said, “In the last few years we have seen a gradual rise of outbound migrant workforce traveling from Hyderabad to the Middle East. Quite often, most of these migrant workers are ignorant of the procedures and documentation needed for emigration clearance and other purposes.”

He added that the presence of a dedicated migrant help desk will help guide the passengers in emigration clearance.

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Aviation min grants rights to GMR to operate Hyderabad airport for 30 yrs

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has granted rights to the GMR Group to operate the Hyderabad international airport for 30 more years, according to a statement issued on Wednesday.

Till date, the GMR Group had the rights to operate the Hyderabad airport till March 22, 2038. The airport was inaugurated on March 23, 2008.

The GMR Group's statement said the extension granted by the MoCA is in terms of the concession agreement that was signed between the MoCA and the GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) on December 20, 2004.

GHIAL, a step-down subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Limited (GIL), has received a letter of confirmation from the MoCA extending the term of the concession agreement for operating the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad for a further period of 30 years - from March 23, 2038 up to March 22, 2068, it said.

"The initial capacity of the airport was 12 million passengers per annum (MPPA), which went up to 21 MPPA in 2019 (pre-Covid)," it said.

The airport, at present, is undergoing major expansion, post which the capacity will get enhanced to 34 MPPA. The airport has 150,000 tons of cargo handling capacity per annum, the statement said.

The airport master plan has the flexibility to increase the ultimate capacity to over 100 MPPA in phases, it said.

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GMR Infra becomes India’s first pure-play airports listed company

GMR Infrastructure Ltd (GIL), which operates Delhi and Hyderabad airports and is constructing several others, on Tuesday became India’s first pure play airports listed company. The infra major has de-merged its other non-airport verticals like power from GMR Infra as GMR Power and Urban Infrastructure Limited (GPUIL). 

“The existing shareholders of GMR Infra will receive one equity share of Rs 5 (face value) eac3h of GMR Power and Urban Infra Limited for holding 10 equity shares of Re 1(face value) share of each GMR Infra Ltd. The demerger happened through a vertical split and resulted in listed companies – GIL and GPUIL and mirror shareholding of the both. All the existing shareholders of GIL will become shareholders of GPUIL in the same proportion. GPUIL shares will start trading independently on the stock exchange in February 2022 after approvals from SEBI/stock exchanges,” GMR Group said in a statement.

“GIL becomes the only pure-play airports platform with strong cash flow generation potential (in India). According to CAPA, GMR Infrastructure is world’s second largest private airport operator after France’s VINCI Airports. It is the only Indian airport developer having strongest international presence,” it added. 

GIL’s airport portfolio has around 18.2 crore per annum passenger capacity (pre-Covid) in operation and under development. The operating airports include: IGIA in Delhi, RGIA in Hyderabad, Mactan Cebu International Airport in Philippines (in partnership with Megawide) and Medan Airport, Indonesia (with Indonesia’s Angkasa Pura II). 

The greenfield projects under development include Mopa in Goa and Heraklion International Airport in Crete, Greece, (in partnership with GEK Terna). It will build Bhogapuram greenfield airport in Andhra Pradesh. It has also signed the concession agreement to commission, operationalise and maintain the civilian enclave at the Bidar Airport in north Karnataka.

GMR Infra spurts on buzz Group will expand Hyderabad airport

GMR Infrastructure surged 10.65% to Rs 43.65 on reports that GMR Group will invest Rs 6,300 crore in Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport to expand the aerodrome's capacity to 34 million passengers per annum by 2024.

The media reported that funds for the expansion have been secured and most part of the finance is through bonds issuance.

Recently, the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) allowed GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL), which manages Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, to gradually increase user development fee (UDF) on embarking domestic as well as international passengers from 1 April 2022.

The AERA allowed GMR Hyderabad International Airport to increase UDF from the existing Rs 281 to Rs 480 and Rs 393 to Rs 700 for domestic and international passengers respectively from 1 April 2022. Similarly, the charges will be enhanced up to Rs 750 for domestic and Rs 1500 for international passengers by 31 December 2025. However, the charges will be reduced to Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 for domestic and international passengers for the last three months of the Control period.

GHIAL is a company promoted as a joint venture comprising the GMR Group (63%) in partnership with Airports Authority of India (AAI) (13%), Government of Telangana (13%) and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (11%).

GHIAL was mandated to design, finance, build and operate Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), Hyderabad as a world class Greenfield airport on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.

Currently Hyderabad Airport handles over 21 million passengers and around 148,000 tons of cargo annually and serves 17 International destinations through 21 International and 3 Indian passenger carriers and has 8 domestic carriers operating to around 53 domestic destinations. In addition to the above, 5 cargo airlines operate dedicated freighter services from Hyderabad Airport.

On a consolidated basis, GMR Infrastructure reported net loss of Rs 317.91 crore in Q1 June 2021 as against net loss of Rs 833.87 crore in Q1 June 2020. Net sales rose 49.89% to Rs 1508.58 crore in Q1 June 2021 over Q1 June 2020.

GMR Infrastructure is a leading global infrastructure conglomerate with interests in airport, energy, transportation and urban infrastructure.

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