Growing Lithuanian maintenance company FL Technics is to co-operate with Costa Rica-based Coopesa to offer base maintenance for Boeing 757 aircraft.
The Avia Solutions Group firm, which specialises in maintenance for CIS country operators, says it decided to develop the 757 service with a partner rather than develop it in-house.
Its airline operation has already used Coopesa for a C-check on one of its own Boeing 757s, and FL Technics chairman Jonas Butautis says: "The quality and cost were really good."
He explains: "We have been operating with customers from the CIS and we have seen a demand for base maintenance for 757s. We don't have an in-house capability for that but we had good experience with Coopesa ourselves. We initiated the discussion and we will be sending out customers to Coopesa."
Coopesa has its own JAR 145 and FAR 145 approvals but Butautis says FL Technics will supervise the work itself. "When we have the first customer will put people out there," he says. "Realistically within the next six months we will have the first customer for Coopesa."
He stresses that the Coopesa relationship is intended to be a strategic partnership, commenting: "It is much more than a simple sub-contract."
Butautis says FL Technics, which is a Boeing 737 Classic specialist and will add 737NG capability shortly, concluded that it generally makes more sense to use partners to provide maintenance on larger aircraft rather than build new hangars which would be required.
"We look at acquiring an in-house capability or seeing if there is a smarter way of doing it," he says.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
