China Eastern Airlines has become the last of the "big three" Chinese airlines to partner a foreign company on aircraft maintenance, through new venture Shanghai Technologies Aerospace (Starco).
Starco is a joint venture with Singapore Technologies Aerospace (ST Aero), which has a 49% stake and which will help attract third-party work. Shanghai-based China Eastern will have the controlling 51%.
ST Aero says Starco will start operations this quarter, after a business licence was secured from Shanghai's State Administration for Industry and Commerce. Plans for the venture were announced early last year but its formal establishment was delayed, initially because of the 2003 SARS virus outbreak and later by regulatory hurdles.
Starco plans to induct its first aircraft in November after approval is secured from the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Work will initially be carried out on Airbus and Boeing aircraft at facilities at Shanghai's old Hongqiao airport, although ST Aero says the new company will build a hangar complex at the city's main airport, Pudong International, by 2006.
With Starco, China Eastern becomes the last of the "big three" Chinese airlines to set up a joint-venture maintenance operation with a foreign partner.
"Leveraging on ST Aerospace's total aviation support capabilities and global customer base, Starco targets to build a capacity of more than 1.5 million man-hours and employ a workforce of 1,000 skilled engineers and technicians in five years," says ST Aero.
NICHOLAS IONIDES / SINGAPORE
Source: Flight International
