Garuda Indonesia and Lion Air Group are in "initial discussions" for an MRO joint venture.
The collaboration would include aircraft, engine, component maintenance, as well as tire retreading, Reuters say in a 17 January report. The agreement was supposedly signed the same day.
Garuda's MRO arm GMF AeroAsia however tells FlightGlobal that while discussions with Lion are underway, no deal has been signed.
"We have an ongoing discussion, but no decision has been made or details that could be shared for now," says GMF.
GMF adds that it it has a long-standing relationship with the Lion group. Besides conducting certain maintenance works on Lion aircraft, it also has a general terms agreement with Lion's MRO arm Batam Aero Technic (BAT).
Lion declined to comment, while Garuda reiterated the comments made by GMF.
Should the two MRO players form a joint venture, the unit would likely look into securing third party work. At present, GMF and BAT largely focus on servicing Garuda and Lion aircraft respectively.
GMF has also previously said that it wants to expand its third party business so as to reduce reliance on Garuda for revenue. BAT has expressed ambitions to bid for third party work from 2020.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
