POOR SUPPLY CHAINS CHOKING AIRLINES

Policymakers and airlines are increasingly calling for localization of maintenance, repair, and overhaul operations

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Thai Airways, the flag carrier of Thailand, is considering switching to traditional taps in its aircraft lavatories as supply chain issues have hit availability of spare parts for automatic water taps. "The electronic water tap is sophisticated and we cannot find spare parts, so we are thinking of going back to using a mechanical tap-it is more reliable and easy to maintain," Thai Airways chief executive officer (CEO) Chai Eamsiri told Mint. "Another example is the chiller (refrigerator) on aircraft. We cannot get a spare of the chiller, so we have to use dry ice instead of the chiller. This is a supply disruption." The effort to reduce reliance on the global supply chain is also visible in the Tata Group-backed Air India and IndiGo, India's largest carrier. With flight operations being impacted due to a scarcity of spare parts amid global supply chain challenges, Indian airlines are turning to local suppliers for noncritical aircraft components.

"I had to import paper used for printers in an aircraft ... Why can't I use local paper? Even the stickers on table or toilet buffers or soap dispenser bottles...

These are small things we are looking at," said Sisira Kanta Dash, Air India's chieftechnical officer.

"If it is not a critical part, it should be acceptable. In certain leases, I made it a point to write it down that non-critical parts should be accepted.

We are in the process of getting approvals." Earlier, restrictive contracts between airline and aircraft lessors as well as a complex regulatory framework hindered local production of non-critical aircraft components. However, this has started to change in the last two-three years.