Indian MRO market set to grow: Buildair
Company to continue investing in R&D and extend its airtight technology to its large H45 and H75 inflatable hangars
Hyderabad: Spain-headquartered inflatable structures maker Buildair Inflatable Structural Solutions, has delivered more than 20 hangars worldwide, including an inflatable hangar to GMR Aero Technic, the wholly owned subsidiary of GMR Hyderabad International Airport. The company is seeing growth opportunities in India in future.
Felipe Cano Ventas, commercial director, Buildair, told Telangana Today, in an exclusive interview, “Indian market is particularly attractive to our technology. The taxation reduction in MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) activities will bring back to India most of the aircraft that are now doing heavy maintenance in third countries. We do expect being part of this. We have a local partner (Global Aerospace) that is supporting us to introduce our technology in the Indian market.”
“Doubtless, the approval of the GMR hangar by the DGCA serves as a perfect calling card of our products in India. We are perceiving an increasing interest and request for qualification (RFQ) from Indian aeronautical companies that we do expect to receive new contracts shortly, considering that Covid-19 has slowed down business significantly.”
Technology development
Buildair was incorporated in 2001, focused on inflatable structures and sheltering. It was created by a group of professors from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia as a spin-off of the CIMNE (International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering). Since then, Buildair has developed the technology and products to cover from 10 m up to 90 meters clear span structures to support aeronautical (civil or military), disaster relief or industrial sectors.
First hangar was delivered to Lan Chile in 2008 and was developed as a hangar extension to cover the aircraft tail once it was in the hangar, since the hangar was not able to cover it completely. Later on and based on the strengths- quick lead time, no foundations requirements and cost-effective solution, Buildair has delivered hangars for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) activity around Europe, Asia, Middle East and South America.
He said, “As of today, Buildair has delivered more than 20 hangars worldwide, having the current world record in inflatable structures with our H75 hangar (75 meters clear span) suitable for accommodating A330 or B787 long-haul fleets. Our main target markets are the Middle East and India. Those areas are growing fast in the MRO market and have no hangars enough to accommodate this expected growth.”
Driving innovation
When asked about innovation and technology developments, he said, “Buildair has recently developed a new airtight technology in sizes up to 30 meters of clear span. This technology does not require any more inflation motors after the hangar has been inflated. Only if the internal pressure of the tubes drops under an established threshold produced due to outside temperature variation, then the inflation motors start automatically to balance the pressure again. Based on our experience with some of these hangars that we already have in operation in Spain, this occurs five to ten minutes per day.”
Buildair expects to grow significantly in the coming one to two years, especially in Indian market, but at the same time it is realistic and considerate of the current pandemic situation. Meanwhile, the company continues to invest in R&D and expect to extend its airtight technology to its large H45 and H75 hangars.
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