Boeing subsidiary to open office in Hyderabad by early 2009

Jeppesen, a wholly-owned Boeing subsidiary specialising in aeronautical charting, is to open an office in Hyderabad by early 2009. Whil e it has operations in Singapore and Beijing, the Hyderabad office would be the first and the only one in India. Addressing the media at the India Aviation 2008 air show here on Thursday , Thomas Wede, Jeppesen's senior vice president for commercial and military aviation, said the company zeroed in on Hyderabad due to various factors including the presence of a state-of-the-art international airport at Shamshabad, the growth of the city as an aviation and aerospace hub including the setting up of an SEZ, and the fact that its central location in the country allows one to fly anywhere within India in less than two hours time. Jeppesen is an information solution provider to the aviation market and supports the majority of airline operators in India with flight critical services. In addition to providing mission critical information , Jeppesen helps customers optimise their operations by providing flight operations management and crew optimisation solutions and electronic flight bag applications and data. The Hyderabad office is to be led by Max Ali, general manager for the location. "We are scouting for offices at two to three locations and will zero in on one very shortly. We aim to become operational in Hyderabad in the first quarter of 2009," Ali said. According to Ali, Jeppesen will also explore the option of opening operations at the Aerospace and Precision Engineering special economic zone coming up at Adibatla in Ranga Reddy district.