Story ID: 331AmacGrowingEBACE2013.doc
Amac Expands Maintenance Capabilities
By: AIN Staff
Caption: 
Word Count: 481
Asked if business at MRO and completion and refurbishment company Amac Aerospace is good, the response from COO Bernd Schramm was simple: “We can’t complain.” It was also a classic understatement, describing business at a company that saw a 2012 net sales increase of about 30 percent over 2011.

The seven-year-old completion center (Booth 258), based in Basel, Switzerland, has already begun work on its first executive Boeing 747-8 and in June expects to deliver an Airbus ACJ319 green completion as well as a major Boeing 777 refurbishment.

More important, Amac has taken a significant step in expanding its maintenance capabilities beyond the Airbus ACJ and Boeing BBJ and now includes executive widebodies, up to and including Airbus ACJ330/340 series and Boeing’s latest 747-8. “It is part of our expansion strategy,” said Amac COO Bernd Schramm, who noted that in moving toward that goal the company opened a new 88,200-sq-ft maintenance hangar last June and has just delivered its first finished project, an executive Boeing 777-200 that was in for a 12-year maintenance check. Currently in the shop for a C-check is an ACJ340, and with activity continuing to grow there are plans for an additional hangar.

“It appears there is a lack of maintenance availability for larger airplanes,” he added, noting that Amac is in a good market position with a complete range of design and maintenance approvals from EASA as well from half-dozen countries outside the European Union.

EBACE, Schramm said, is one of the most important shows for Amac, allowing meetings with current and future clients, market evaluation and maintenance of relationships with suppliers and vendors. “We will also be promoting our new facility in Turkey,” he added. Amac Aerospace Turkey was recently awarded EASA Part 145 certification, allowing the facility to undertake all base and line maintenance on aircraft under 12,566 pounds (5,700 kilograms), including the Pilatus PC-12 NG. The approval allows the facility, at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul, to serve as the maintenance service center base for PC-12 NG owners in the Middle East. Amac became the exclusive Middle East distributor of the PC-12 NG for the Swiss OEM last December.

In other news from Amac, the facility has been granted maintenance approval by the Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC). The certification permits Amac to carry out base and line maintenance work on all Brazilian-registered Boeing 737 types at its EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg facilities. This also allows Amac to undertake on-wing engine maintenance, engine removal and installation, replacement of engine components and accessories in accordance with the capability list approve by ANAC, as well as undertake specialist services in Level-3 nondestructive inspections.

Amac’s other international approvals include those from Aruba, Nigeria, Cameroon and Russia, as well as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates where it is GCAA-approved.