By Brendan Sobie in London
Spare capacity at expanded Nashville facility will be offered under move to grow support and services business
Embraer is to add an Airbus A320 overhaul line at its newly expanded Nashville, Tennessee maintenance facility and is also considering expanding its main Brazilian shop to accommodate narrowbodies and potentially widebodies.
Nashville-based Embraer Aircraft Maintenance Services (EAMS) says it is negotiating a maintenance deal with an undisclosed A320 operator and has begun investing in tooling and training to support the opening of an A320 line by year-end. The Embraer subsidiary opened a second maintenance hangar in May that can house up to three large regional jets or narrowbodies.
EAMS vice-president finance and administration Bob de Priest says it has since completed C check equivalents on 10 Embraer 170s and will later use the new shop to maintain E-190/195s. But there is spare capacity. "We're branching off to other products, looking at the A320 in particular," says de Priest.
Fernando Ranieri, Embraer vice-president of aviation services - airline market, says plans to expand the product offering at Nashville are part of an overall strategy to grow the company's customer support and aviation services business. Embraer last year reorganised the business, which now accounts for 15% of its overall revenues, compared with 10% a few years ago. The growth is mainly driven by the purchase of EAMS predecessor Celsius Aerotech in 2002 and the acquisition last year of a majority stake in OGMA. The Portuguese maintenance company opened its own A320 C check line in 2001 and is now helping EAMS expand into A320s.
Ranieri says to further expand its services business, Embraer is looking at expanding its shop at Gaviao Peixoto in Brazil and opening or acquiring a shop in Asia Pacific. The manufacturer also expects to open within two years new service centres in Europe and the USA dedicated to servicing its new family of very light business jets.
In 2004 Embraer opened a new maintenance hangar and consolidated its Brazilian maintenance business at its Gaviao Peixoto test centre. Embraer is now looking to build a new hangar to handle overflow from the current shop, which handles turboprops and small regional jets and is at capacity, as well as much larger aircraft.
"Even widebodies, why not?" says vice-president of customer support - airline markets Edson Mallaco. He says labour rates in Brazil are conducive for large aircraft maintenance and there are not enough E-170/190s operating in Latin America to support a new hangar alone.
Source: Flight International
