Emirates' maintenance division has completed the first entire landing-gear change for one of its Airbus A380s.
The Dubai-based airline says that replacement of the aircraft's nose and four main landing gears was executed within a 14-day period at Emirates Engineering's facility.
Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that the 12-year-old aircraft involved (registered A6-EDF; MSN 007) is Emirates' oldest A380 in service, but has accumulated fewer hours than others in the fleet.
The airline has received 103 A380s and has another 59 on order.
Two further Emirates A380s are scheduled to undergo complete landing-gear changes in 2018.
Emirates
Emirates says the maintenance event was planned in-house, with support from Airbus, landing-gear suppliers Safran and UTC Aerospace Systems, and UK tooling specialist Field International.
Mohammad Jaffar Nasser, Emirates' senior vice-president of engineering and maintenance, describes the event as an "important milestone", highlighting "the degree of planning, preparation and expertise that go behind the successful execution of complex projects such as this one".
Nasser adds that Emirates Engineering is "extending [its] services to third-party airlines".
Source: FlightGlobal.com
