Indocopters on growth path

Promising’ is the opening remark of Indocopters CEO Mike Meyer on Day One of India Aviation 2012. Four more days to go and the momentum is expected to pick up. Indocopters, a leading specialist helicopter maintenance, repair and overhaul organisation, is looking beyond the four days.

For one, the General Elections in India next year is going to be one major driver for helicopter and small aircraft market as political leaders will be on whistlestop tours. “There are about 300 helicopters in India and I expect it to go up by 15 per cent, driven by elections, heli-tourism and general growth in aviation sector.” If the constraints of taxation, infrastructure etc are removed and new usages of helicopters such as electronic news gathering, policing etc take to the skies, the numbers could almost double.

Meyer said efforts were on to get the helicopter and general aviation industry together as to become a force to negotiate with the government for better infrastructure and other facilities. From a fragmented industry, in terms of lobbying, now it has started speaking in one voice-through the Business Aviation Operators Association of India.

INDOCOPTERS ROADMAP

The helicopter specialists are expanding their presence in India and Meyer announced opening of a centre in Ahmedabad this year, taking the total number of offices to 13. “We got to go where the market is and that is what we are doing.”

Keeping pace with the opening of maintenance and operational bases in the country, the headcount of engineers and technicians is expected to ‘significantly’ go up in the near future. However, Indocopter is in discussions with Eurocopter, its commercial partner in India, to set up a training facility here for engineers and technicians. Currently, they are being trained in France and other places which has added up to the costs. “There is another problem in the industry, there is major poaching, hence many are wary to invest in training.” Training required considerable investment in terms of time and money.

Asked about the constraints in India, Meyer mentioned that it was a highly competitive industry with margins getting squeezed. It was less than 10 per cent whereas in the Middle East it was double. The cost of acquisition of tools was high here.

Nevertheless after China, India has a lot of promise and Indocopters is here for the long run, supporting customers in the selection and purchase of helicotpers, MRO, etc. “There are challenges and we have to overcome. We will. We hope next year will be good.”