Alitalia has sealed a maintenance agreement with Air France's servicing division, covering the Italian airline's six Embraer 170 aircraft.
The five-year flight-hour pool programme, which also includes Embraer as a partner, is designed to provide Alitalia with expertise from both the Brazilian airframer and the maintenance division of Air France - which has a shareholding in Alitalia.
Embraer already supports the fleets of Air France-KLM Group subsidiaries Regional and Cityhopper.
The airframer states that the pool programme includes "quick and extensive" spares replacement and is designed to enable carriers with only small fleets to benefit from economy of scale.
"It helps reduce investment in parts inventories, controls costs, and minimises the risk of surplus," says Embraer.
Alitalia Servizi marketing director Fabio Schinelli adds: "We can now rely on a top-level maintenance package that will enable us to efficiently and intensively operate our E-Jet fleet, while optimising costs."
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
