-Feb 18th, 2009
SriLankan Engineering, the aircraft maintenance arm of SriLankan Airlines, has been awarded a major contract to carry out a series of important maintenance checks on the aircraft fleet of the fast-growing Indian carrier IndiGo.
IndiGo is India’s largest domestic low-fare carrier, and is now that country’s third largest airline in terms of passengers carried.
Manoj Gunawardena, SriLankan’s CEO, said: “We are delighted that IndiGo is the latest long-term customer of SriLankan Engineering, which has been positioned as a top quality aircraft maintenance provider with the strongest credentials and capabilities. We are now ready to carry out work for all airlines in the region, and it is our intention to develop our maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility to be a centre of excellence.”
The project is being carried out at SriLankan Engineering’s main hangar complex at Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA). The first C-check commenced on 9th February and was successfully completed, with a second scheduled later in the same month.
D.A.G. Jayasuriya, Acting Head of Engineering at SriLankan, said: “SriLankan Engineering proved its capabilities by carrying out several Heavy Maintenance Checks for airlines such as Airblue and Emirates over the last several years. We have demonstrated time and again that we provide the highest level of expertise and a rapid time of completion at very competitive rates. Our objective now is to secure continuous business from major airlines and smaller airlines that are expanding rapidly. We have a superb facility at BIA, and our engineering staff are second to none.”
A high-level team from IndiGo, led by its Chief Operating Officer and its Vice President for Engineering, visited facilities at BIA and were quite satisfied with the capabilities and expertise of SriLankan Engineering.
SriLankan Engineering in 2007 received the prestigious industry standard EASA 145 from the European Aviation Safety Agency, in recognition of its commitment to the highest standards of professionalism in aircraft maintenance. A few months later, the airline’s school for pilots, aircraft engineers and technicians, SriLankan Technical Training, became one of a few companies in Asia to receive the EASA 147 certification to provide training in Aircraft Maintenance to foreign and local students.
SriLankan Engineering has achieved some impressive accomplishments in recent times. Airbus Industrie last year presented SriLankan with its global award for Operational Excellence among all small airlines that operate the 4-engined A340 aircraft. Airbus, one of the world’s two largest manufacturers of commercial aircraft, had earlier presented SriLankan with the same award for the twin-engined A330.
SriLankan has a wealth of experience with Airbus aircraft, having an all-Airbus fleet of A320, A330, and A340 aircraft.
Indigo commenced operations in August 2006, and now has 125 flights a day to 17 cities, all within India. It has a fleet of 19, all of them twin-engined Airbus A320-200 aircraft. IndiGo was recently awarded the ‘Best Domestic Low Cost Carrier’ at the Galileo Express Travel World Awards 2008. The privately owned airline made a notable impact on the global air transport industry even before it commenced operations in August 2006, when it placed a USD 6 billion order for 100 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft during the 2005 Paris Air Show. It is expected to take delivery of all 100 aircraft by 2016.
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