BM Engineering has agreed a five-year maintenance support contract with Norwegian start-up charter operator Color Air. The deal represents the company's first third party base maintenance contract since setting up last year as as a separate corporate entity from parent airline British Midland.
Color Air has two ex-TACA Boeing 737-300s, leased from International Lease Finance and painted at BM's East Midlands Airport maintenance base, and plans to add three more 737s to its fleet. It is to start operations this month from Oslo's new Gardermoen Airport.
On 1 August, BM Engineering took on the lease of the hangar at the East Midlands vacated by Hunting Aircraft Engineering, which has four bays and a paint shop. The present two-bay hangar, used to maintain British Midland's Fokker 70/100s and Boeing 737s, is not large enough to accommodate the addition of new Airbus A321s.
Steve Clements, BM Engineering sales and marketing manager, says that one and a half bays of its new hangar will be for British Midland's fleet while the rest will be mainly for third party work.
Source: Flight International
