MRO: What ambitions now for SR Technics? |
| Romain Guillot |
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09 MAY 2019 | 518 words
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© SR Technics |
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SR Technics is the victim of the particularly high costs of its Kloten (Zurich) base and is currently adapting in order to remain competitive in the market. The strengthening of its engine shop, the continuation of its cabin modification activity and its new project for narrow body planes in Malta are three development areas that the Swiss MRO is putting in place for the coming years.
Although it joined China's HNA group in 2016, SR Technics is still continuing a strategy which was clearly identified by its former owner Mubadala, as Swissair's previous maintenance division cannot meet the activity brought by the requirements of SWISS and Edelweiss airlines.
The "Center of Excellence for Cabin Modification" has completed two major cabin modification projects over the last few months. The first project modernised the cabins on four Airbus A330-200s belonging to Virgin Atlantic, a programme which was conducted between December and January, right in the middle of the holiday period. The planes, which had come from Air Berlin's fleet, didn't correspond to the product available on board the British airline's A330-300s. Virgin invested 10 million points in the cabins for these four aircraft, with modification to the galleys, reconfiguration of the different cabins with new seats in business class and in premium economy class and a new IFE. The STC were developed by SR Technics.
The other major project was conducted on behalf of the AerCap leasing company which wanted to convert the galleys on five of its Boeing 777-300ERs to ATLAS standard, an operation intended to speed up the transitions between operators.
SR Technics's Maltese activity (SR Technics Malta), which it launched in 2010 after signing a major maintenance contract with the British low-cost airline Easyjet, is also set to increase significantly from next year with the construction of a new 30 000 m2 hangar which will have up to six aircraft bays compatible with A320 and 737 family aircraft. The project represents some 40 million Euro-worth of investment. The first three bays should be operational at the start of next year.
Up to now, SR Technics Malta had only been operating one hangar that could only accommodate two narrow body aircraft at the same time. The development of this new "Center of Excellence" (CoE) for the Swiss company comes just after its closed its Zurich activity for this type of aircraft last year, with the loss of around a hundred dedicated jobs. The Maltese activity promises to create 350 new jobs, added to the 300 or so employees already present on site.
Finally, SR Technics's Engine Services activity in Zurich remains a priority for the maintenance company, as shown by this latest exclusive contract it signed last March with the American airline Allegiant for around fifty CFM56-5Bs on inspection for the next three years. SR Technics's engine maintenance activity has always been a profitable one, although one which concentrated on CFM56s and PW4000s. SRT's engine shop should be expanding with around one hundred new members of staff next year, according to the strategic plan which was involved just a year ago.
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Romain Guillot
Chief editor
Cofounder of Journal de l'Aviation and Alertavia
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