As of November 2020, China’s international flights are still down substantially but its daily domestic flights in the last week of the month averaged nearly 9% above the same period of 2019, according to RadarBox.
Given this uptick, two major Chinese MROs are taking advantage of the resumed growth with expansions, new capabilities and ambitious plans for the future.
Beijing-based Ameco recently opened an outstation at Wudangshan Airport in a mountainous tourist area about 500 miles west of Shanghai. The MRO has been doing maintenance at Wudangshan since 2018, and now has officially opened its facility there.
Far to the south near Hong Kong, GAMECO has signed a memorandum of understanding with Shenzen Airport to provide maintenance and ground services for both domestic and international flights.
Since 2016, Shenzhen has been putting more focus of international flights, which accounted for 10% of its traffic in 2019. It hopes to further increase this volume in the post-COVID world by exploiting the potential of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
According to the MOU, cooperation between Shenzhen and GAMECO will take advantage of the airport's platform and GAMECO's maintenance capabilities, qualifications and branding. The partners aim to provide comprehensive and high-quality aviation maintenance and ground service for domestic and international airlines, pushing Shenzhen to become an innovative international hub airport.
And earlier in November, GAMECO completed its first 737-800 Boeing Converted Freighter at its Guangzhou facility. “Despite the challenges caused by the global pandemic, we were able to fulfill our promises and redeliver the conversion product faster than anticipated and with the highest quality,” said GAMECO general manager Norbert Marx. He promised to apply lessons learned from this conversion to future conversions.
In September, GAMECO and Boeing announced the opening of their second 737-800BCF conversion line at the Guangzhou facility. Peter Gao, Boeing’s vice president of commercial sales and marketing in China, praised GAMECO’s conversion ahead of schedule under difficult circumstances, saying it showcased high levels of quality.
