SR Technics is mounting an assault on the US maintenance market accusing rivals of providing only "average performance" to airlines. The company, the second European maintenance provider to try to break into the North American market, follows EADS Aeroframe Services which opened for business in February.
The maintenance arm of the troubled Swiss SAirGroup has launched its effort to crack the US market in the wake of the official opening of SR Technics America's facility on the site of the former Rockwell B-1 bomber assembly plant in Palmdale, California.
Opening the plant on 22 March, SR Technics chief executive Hans Beyeler said airlines in the USA were not "getting the maintenance they deserve from third party suppliers...we will offer a new type of service by creating maintenance value not just producing time and cost."
The Palmdale plant already has a major customer following a Boeing deal to convert 57 McDonnell Douglas DC-10s into two flightcrew MD-10s for FedEx Express. The first Palmdale-converted aircraft has just flown and work on the programme is expected to run beyond 2006. The Boeing connection could be extended with discussions already held regarding cockpit upgrade work on 747 and 767 types.
Meanwhile, SR Technics is seeking contracts to fill the remainder of the site's two hangars. By September it expects to start DC-10 maintenance, with Hawaiian Airlines looking most likely to be the lead customer. It also intends to set up either an MD-80 or 737 line and, from next year, an Airbus line.
If the plan succeeds, the USA will become the largest component in Zurich-based SR Technics' line-up. Palmdale could eventually employ 6,000, nearly double the total now employed by the company as a whole. Part of the US build- up includes expanding and renaming its California-based spares operation Willis Aeronautical Services and boosting engine repair specialist Pacific Gas Turbine, in which it has a 50% holding.
While SR Technics pursues its Californian ambitions, at Lake Charles, Louisiana, the EADS Sogerma/North Grumman venture, EADS Aeroframe Services, has completed C checks on three A320s for its first customer, the Canadian airline Skyservice.
The company has also landed a heavy maintenance contract for an A321 for ILFC as it seeks to break into the growing Americas Airbus markets. By June it expects to have approval for a A300/A310 line.
Source: Flight International
