SR Technics win new contracts with Qatar Airways and Thomson Airways

SR Technics five-year deal with Thomson will support 45 aircraft: 29 Boeing 757s and 16 767s. It encompasses exchange, maintenance, repair, logistics and component management services, including provision of dedicated component consignment stocks and access to SR Technics’ component pool stocks on a per-flight-hour basis.

The company will also modify the cabin layout for three of Qatar ’s Airbus A321s and two A319s by year end. The work will be done in Zurich and will include installations of a new seat layout, an in-flight entertainment system and a global system for mobile communication. Galleys and lavatories are also being renewed.

Owned by Abu Dhabi state investment arm Mubadala, SR Technics is part of an MRO network that also includes Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies, plus spare engine and rotable leasing company Sanad Aero Solutions. A project aimed at integrating Mubadala’s various aerospace businesses is under way. 

James Stewart, chief executive of SR Technics, said: “We’re looking at synergies, and we’ll say something more about that in 2011.”

Stewart foresees SR Technics being the third-largest MRO company, behind Lufthansa Technik and Air France-KLM. 

The new-look SR Technics is focusing on high-value, specialised work, partly in acknowledgement of its high cost base at Zurich . In October it will open what it terms a “narrowbody centre of excellence” in Malta , where lower labour rates apply. 

An EasyJet A320 family aircraft will be the first aircraft processed at the site, where Boeing 737 capability will be added in 2012.

A temporary two-bay hangar from Medavia is currently being leased but in 2012 will move to a new four-bay facility, construction of which begins this summer.