The civil aviation industry in India has emerged as one of the fastest growing industries in the country during the last three years. India is currently considered the third largest domestic civil aviation market in the world. India has become the third largest domestic aviation market in the world and is expected to overtake UK to become the third largest air passenger market by 2024. Understanding the current market landscape many aviation companies has been established to fulfill the increasing demands of the aviation market. Minerva Aviation Services, Wheels & Brakes units a professionally managed organization was set up by a group of engineers to achieve the immediate goal of supporting the commercial airline operators. Minerva aircraft Wheels and Brakes is the energy efficient Strategic Business Unit incepted with a vision to serve the operators and aircraft maintenance.
The aviation company is an ISO 9001-2015 certified organization holding a DGCA approval, located near the International Airport, Chennai. The firm offers various services such as MRO Services, Non Destructive Testing, AOG Support, Wheel Assembly, Wheel and Brake Overhaul, OEM’S Facility, Plating and coating and many more. “Minerva Aviation Services started in a humble way to maintain wheels and brakes of Embraer E170 series aircraft. The capability has rapidly grown up to cover a dozen of popular aircraft models of Airbus, Boeing, ATR and Bombardier Series. The Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) coverage includes maintenance of wheel and brakes models of Megitt Braking Systems, Honeywell, BF Goodrich, Messier Bugatti and Dunlop Company. Minerva is spreading its wing from serving of regional airlines and feeder services to the national and international carriers,” says Ashok Rajkumar, CEO, Minerva Aviation Services.
The Legend behind the curtain
Minerva Aviation Services is a true story of the self-made entrepreneur, who started from almost nothing and has to work hard to achieve his enviable records of success. Ashok Rajkumar started his career as unpaid Trainee Technician; mastered his trade in the field of aircraft maintenance and grown as a well-paid technician in the much acclaimed and reputed Blue Dart Aviation, Chennai; he quit the company to realize his dream of carving a “system driven organisation”, where the consistency in delivering high quality service is the only way of success. The CEO identifies himself as a team-leader responsible for transforming a small aviation workshop into a potential national player in hi-tech aircraft wheels and brakes segment. When started his own business as young man, his brother urged him to deliver the best possible customer service and take “the workplace, workforce and regulations” to the heart; he further emphasized, the continuous training of workforce and upgrading of technology are the two binding forces that inculcate the sense of commitment in the organisation. This may explain why the brand “Minerva” has become a leading force in the niche segment for the total solution on aircraft wheels and brakes. The government of Tamil, as a mark of appreciation, issued a letter of commendation and young entrepreneur award to the CEO. The government supported new state-of-the-art facilities are coming up in the Aerospace Park in Bangalore and Chennai.
Established in the year 2014, the firm has served various clients over the years such as Spice jet, True Jet, Jet Airways; Air Asia, Air Pegasus, Air Costa, Star Air and defence organisation such as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Indian Naval Base and international customers are to name a few. “We realize that many of our competitors provide similar products and services. So Minerva has to be differentiated from the competitors. Therefore we made assurance that employee stand out in the mind of the customer. Providing superior customer service is one way to do this. Satisfying the customers is crucial to the business success. As our industry becomes more competitive, it is vital that our customers are pleased with us, loyal to us, and keep coming back to us,” adds Ashok.
The factor that differentiates the firm from that of its counterpart in the market is the the core value imbibed in the organization. The wisdom of quality in performing every task that accounts for the component reliability forms an essential element of the airline safety. “The brand “Minerva” is an Indian aviation service provider with Japanese Quality System; Minerva’s track record includes: the thousands of wheels and brakes are serviced with highest reliability record with zero defects till date. Customer Airlines trust Minerva is the only on-time service provided with no additional charges. The firm has joined as Airline’s trusted partner to support the mission of safety, efficiency, and sustainability of the Airline business.”
The CEO believes that the organisation’s phenomenal growth is merely due the shared vision and commitment of the team members. The team members are self-disciplined, self-driven and self-managed to see their career growth along with the growth of the organisation. Every employee is committed to the service quality and personal safety. Minerva facility and maintenance procedures are in full compliance with the internationally proven Safety Management System (SMS) and Human Factor (HF) Principles and Human Performance (HP) benchmarks. Further the CEO also stresses on the competency of employees. Everyone is empowered through continuous training and development. Besides, a dozen of mandatory training’s on safety and quality required by the apex regulatory authority, the DGCA, the organisation invest more resources on additional training to apply the latest tools and technology to improve human performance. Minerva facility is an ergonomically designed scientific layout to facilitate less movement and efficient execution of the tasks. Emphasized on team-oriented performance and extensively uses information technology to minimize human errors.
Minerva Aviation aspires to become a major service provider and market leader at the national and international market by 2020 and aims to imprint its name in the international map as leading aerospace company providing quality and timely service. Minerva is further envisioned to contribute substantially to the aviation industry within and outside India, in a humble way of employment generation and enhancing of social wellbeing.
