Andrew Doyle/BEIJING
Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering (Ameco) is in talks with Israel's Bedek Aviation on the possibility of performing Boeing 747 passenger-to-freighter conversions under the latter's supplemental type certificate.
Ameco owners Lufthansa and Air China have, meanwhile, started discussions on extending the joint venture beyond April 2004, when their original 15-year agreement expires. One possible outcome is the German group increasing its stake beyond the current 40% in return for investing in new capabilities for Ameco.
"I wouldn't rule out 50:50 or even [Lufthansa taking] a majority stake," says Ameco general manager Walter Heerdt. "It's completely open at this stage," he adds.
Beijing-based Ameco is sponsoring a Bedek-organised conference on the freighter conversion market which will take place in the Chinese capital in early November. The Israeli company is seeking subcontractors to help it cope with demand for 747 modifications.
In addition to the talks with Bedek, Heerdt says that the firm is eyeing the 737 "Classic" conversion market, as the type is widely used in China.
Ameco forecasts that profits will increase by 30% or 40 million yuan ($4.8 million) in the current year, based on the company's performance to the end of August and the fact that its capacity is sold out until the end of the first quarter of 2001.
Heerdt says Ameco aims to reduce its dependence on Air China work from the current 64% by sales to around 50% by 2003, enabling it to nearly double the proportion of higher-yield work for third-party international customers from 16% to about 30%. Work for other Chinese airlines is predicted to remain stable at 20%.
Though the government is encouraging China's airlines to consolidate into three main groups there are still more than 20 carriers operating diverse fleets, which Heerdt says "makes it difficult to decide what our strategy should be and where we should invest".
Ameco, China's largest aircraft maintenance company employing 3,800 people, expects to turn over about 1.2 billion yuan this year.
Source: Flight International
