New Delhi, Sept. 19 -- For two decades, India's airlines have sent much of their aircraft maintenance work abroad. That may finally be changing.

Indian airlines operate one of the fastest-growing aircraft fleets in the world, but until recently, much of the major maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) work on that fleet was carried out overseas, particularly in Singapore, the Gulf and Sri Lanka.

Every engine or aircraft sent abroad for an overhaul meant foreign exchange flowing out of India, along with the jobs, tooling investment and supplier ecosystem that could have developed around the work.

Now, the government is trying to change that equation. A series of policy measures has made it cheaper and easier to set up and operate MRO fa...