Few of our countrymen, while still in their early thirties, can claim to have achieved such professional prominence as Somas Appavoo. His appointment as director of a key division of Airbus was the culmination of an exceptional academic and professional track record. “I have been fascinated by airplanes since childhood”, says Somas who was on holiday here some time ago. He has made it where so many have given up. The passion he has always lived for is now earning him a very comfortable living.

Somas Appavoo studied at Lycée Labourdonnais in Curepipe. In 1989, after passing his Baccalaureate, he read a degree course in Applied Maths in France. “But my passion charted my way to a specialisation in aviation.” He then sought admission for a DEA in Transport, Aeronautics and Space Economics at l’Ecole Nationale d’Aviation Civile, one of the world’s top institutions in aeronautics. Somas, who had had a mainly scientific and engineering background, for the first time encountered economics and management.

In 1997, he returned after a short placement at Eurocontrol, the highest air control body in Europe and joined Air Mauritius as aircraft operations trainee. His main task was to see how the airline could optimise fuel consumption in its planes.

As Air Mauritius was then reviewing its fleet, Somas joined the Planning and Development Department as analyst. His main assignment was to analyse and make recommendations on issues like fleet, routes, networks, scheduling, financing options for new aircraft, joint ventures, new markets, etc.

This was a thorough by hands-on experience in charting out strategies and handling operations in the airline business. But soon he reviewed his involvement in the company as, “in Mauritius, opportunities are rather limited”. In 2001, he moved to Quebec in Canada but did not stay there very long. He got a job as analyst at the Spare Engineering and Provisioning Division of Airbus and was posted to Hamburg in Germany.

There, he climbed his way up and soon found himself at the helm of the Supply Chain Support division. He heads a team of ten whose main task is to advise clients on spare parts policies. “Our job is primarily about providing support to customers. When an aircraft is ordered, we have to come up with a forecast for spares inventory. We must advise clients on how to best manage their spare parts and accompanying tools.”

Somas’s team has to oversee the provisioning programme. Spares and tools are recommended as per the airline’s maintenance and operation parameters. These take into account factors such as flying cycles, mandatory checks, scheduled checks and protection levels.

The Spare Engineering and Provisioning Division also provides consulting services in spares management optimisation and is very involved in providing support to ageing aircrafts. “We regularly visit our clients. In many cases, we even have our representative posted at clients’ sites for ongoing inspection. We adopt a very preventive approach. It is our responsibility to draw our clients’ attention to anything that is deemed wrong.”

Somas has a very critical mission. He must ensure that airline companies that buy the Airbus aircraft can meet the highest safety standards at the lowest cost.