++ Qantas is setting up a venture at Avalon Airport, near Melbourne, to begin an A$560 million ($378.3 million) interior refurbishment of its 29-strong Boeing 747 fleet. ++ Pemco World Air Services is to refurbish the interiors of 11 AirTran Airlines (formerly ValuJet) McDonnell Douglas DC-9s to install business-class sections. ++ Snecma's maintenance arm, Snecma Services, has signed a deal with Northwest Airlines covering the maintenance of engines ordered for 70 Airbus A320s. ++ Aerospatiale maintenance subsidiary Sogerma is to increase the rate of conversions of Airbus A300s and A310s from passenger to freight configuration under contract to Daimler-Benz Aerospace Airbus to ten units a year from six. A second production line will be opened in 1998 at Aerospatiale's Toulouse base to cope with the increase. ++ Icelandair is to undertake maintenance on Swedish charter operator Blue Scandinavia's fleet of five Boeing 757s. It has also been selected by Air Holland to carry out work on three Boeing 737-300s and four 757s. Both deals run for three years. ++ Australian regional National Jet Systems has awarded Airinmar a contract to manage the repair and overhaul of unserviceable rotables from its fleet of more than 40 aircraft. The UK rotables-management company has recently opened a new support centre in Adelaide. ++ AlliedSignal Aerospace and British Aerospace Asset Management Jets (AMJ) have signed a contract for the maintenance of auxiliary power-units (APUs) in AMJ's BAe 146 leasing fleet. The five-year contract also covers repair and overhaul of the APUs at AlliedSignal's site in Raunheim, Germany, and includes all future leasing agreements between AMJ and their lease partners. ++ United Airlines has been selected by Boeing to maintain the four Pratt & Whitney PW2000-powered Boeing 757 C-32s which will be used by US Air Force senior VIPs, starting in 1998.
Source: Flight International
