Mature-aircraft trader and lessor Vallair has grown its aerostructure repair offering into widebody aircraft by adding the Airbus A330 to its portfolio.
Vallair plans to introduce the new repair workscopes for the widebody’s aerostructure components in the second quarter of this year.
The company previously focused on A320 and 737 aerostructures from its maintenance center in Chateroux, France. At the site, it currently repairs several parts including nacelles, inlet cowls, fan cowls, thrust reversers and flight controls.
Malcolm Chandler, head of commercial and marketing at Vallair, says the fine tuning of its capabilities followed its assessing and reacting to the needs of the market.
“We have upskilled our current workforce to accommodate these additional services and work on A330 thrust reversers and inlet cowls will begin this month,” he says. “Currently our turn-around times for narrowbody thrust reversers are four to five weeks, with five to six weeks for outer workscopes, and we will maintain these efficient TATs the A330.”
The announcement follows up on plans by Vallair to add new capacity in Chateroux. Last month, it announced the signing of a letter of intent for a 10-year to build a new hangar catering for aircraft maintenance, repair, overhaul and cargo conversion by summer 2021.
The 92,000 sq.ft hangar will be located adjacent to the existing aerostructures repair and logistics facility and will have capacity to accommodate four A321 size aircraft, or a combination of A330s and A321s.
Vallair estimates that the new facility, which it is investing around €5 million ($5.9 million) in, will lead to the creation of around 200 jobs comprised of both in-house Vallair employees and external contractors.
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