31 Oct 2025

How SPARTA enabled a large airline in India to get M&A-Ready across 150 aircraft

What was at stake?

In 2021, the Government of India initiated the sale of a major national airline and its low-cost subsidiary. With the buyer emerging swiftly, the transaction moved quickly into high-stakes due diligence. One critical requirement stood out: making technical and operational records for over 150 aircraft clean, structured, and instantly accessible globally for review.

The scale of the task was enormous. Records were scattered across five base stations located miles apart, stored in a mix of paper files, scanned copies, and fragmented digital systems. They covered everything from airworthiness directives to lease return histories, and every single document needed to pass review by legal, technical, and financial teams before it could be approved.

Where It Got Complicated

What made this difficult was not the absence of data, but the lack of a smart and intelligent centralised digital system. Records existed, but in multiple formats, with varying levels of completeness and quality. Each base had its own process, its own file conventions, and its own understanding of what was complete. Teams were already operating under pressure, and timelines for the disinvestment were tight and inflexible.

Some of the key challenges on the ground:

    • No central system to unify and standardise record structure. 

    • Different conventions and directory structures at each base

    • Mixed formats: physical records, scanned PDFs, legacy digital

    • Variation in what was considered “complete” by local teams

    • Internal engineering bandwidth already stretched out. 

    • No room for delay or rework. Everything had to align with the transaction timeline

Acumen was brought in along with their proprietary Aviation Records System: SPARTA, to go beyond digitisation. The task was to build a common structure across five bases, enforce record quality standards, and ensure the entire dataset could withstand external due diligence without handholding.

 This was not just about relocating files. It was about restructuring records, indexation, making them search-ready, and mapping to regulatory checklists to meet audit-level expectations; all done through SPARTA. It meant digging into the technical depth, cross-checking airworthiness data, mapping redelivery checklists to available records, and generating audit-ready traceability across a live fleet, all accessible on a global digital system.

How Acumen Tackled It

Acumen deployed a 40-member team of experienced records analysts and a dedicated quality team. The team was spread across all five base stations and coordinated centrally with the Project Management Office in Bangalore. The entire team collaborated and operated on the central SPARTA system for end-to-end project management. 

 This setup ensured every site was supported on the ground, while governance, reporting, and technical alignment happened from a single command centre on the system.

The work was divided into two key phases:

Phase One focused on physical collection, scanning, tagging, and digital segregation of aircraft records.

Teams worked on aircraft by aircraft, building a structure from scratch where needed.

• Records were grouped by ATA chapter and aircraft system
• A structured folder directory was created for every aircraft
• File naming conventions were standardised across the fleet.  
• Data integrity issues were flagged and resolved at the source
• Engineering teams at each base were looped in to ensure completeness and traceability

Phase Two involved remote analysts who conducted deep data validation and compliance checks on SPARTA. 

The goal was not just to confirm a file existed. It was to ensure each one could withstand audit scrutiny in both content and context.

• Reviewed each aircraft’s record set for AD, SB, and STC coverage
• Structural repairs, LLP back-to-birth tracking, and major modification records were examined
• Redelivery conditions were mapped to the actual documentation
• Gaps were flagged early and sent back to base teams for resolution
• The final output was not just a folder dump. It was a fully indexed, bidder-friendly digital data room

The data room system was activated and circulated with access across all the stakeholders to reduce search time, improve traceability, and allow external stakeholders to navigate it without hand-holding.

SPARTA automated weekly updates to the airline’s senior management, detailing fleet-wise status, open points, and movement across phases. The project was tightly governed, still flexible enough to adapt when exceptions surfaced.

What We Got Done

Acumen completed the digitisation and validation of records for over 150 aircraft across five base stations; all thanks to their robust Records System: SPARTA, along with a capable team of global experts. The project was closed five working days before the agreed deadline.

• All aircraft records were cleaned, scanned, and indexed for audit use
• Each record set was validated for completeness and compliance
• Folder structures were aligned to support systematic third-party review
• File naming and grouping were standardised across all bases

Every aircraft’s record set met the quality bar expected by the technical and financial advisors representing the bidders. The SPARTA data room reflected not just completeness, but clarity and intent in how files were structured, named, and organised, which made a material difference when third parties began reviewing the documents.

• The data room was built for external eyes, not just internal compliance
• File structure enabled faster navigation, with minimal clarification queries
• No rework loops or follow-ups required from bidders or consultants
• Every set passed advisor review without major iterations or rework

The airline was able to move through its due diligence process without delays, backed by 24/7 global access to decades of technical data. This gave all parties involved a common ground of facts, reduced confusion, and helped maintain deal momentum through the final stages.

Since the full dataset was digitised and delivered via SPARTA during the original project, the historical data remains fully compatible with the platform even today. If reused, it would significantly reduce time and effort for any future onboarding or incremental data migration. 

Looking Back, Moving Forward

Acumen’s value in this project came not just from its pool of global records experts but from a Digital System that brought everyone on a single platform, enabling them to operate under pressure, coordinate in real-time across geographies and translate aviation records into structured, high-quality documentation ready for transaction-grade scrutiny.