Iberia Maintenance will be sole MRO provider for Vueling’s CFM56 engines and preferential provider for V2500s
- Iberia Maintenance will be sole MRO provider for Vueling’s CFM56 engines and preferential provider for V2500s
- Iberia’s maintenance unit will also conduct C-checks and 6-year overhauls of the entire fleet at hangars in Vueling’s Barcelona base and in Madrid
- The contract also covers certain aircraft components
Iberia Maintenance and Vueling have reached a long-term agreement for the maintenance and repair of airframes, engines, and parts, chiefly at the airline’s Barcelona base
The deal tightens the relationship between Iberia and its IAG partner Vueling, which was named Europe’s best low-cost carrier in 2021, and is in conformity with both companies’ commitments to fortify aircraft maintenance activity at Barcelona’s El Prat airport, as announced in June:
Sole provider of maintenance services to CFM56 engines and preferential provider for V2500s
At its Madrid engine workshops Iberia Maintenance will be the sole provider of maintenance and repair services to the CFM56-5B engines powering part of Vueling’s fleet of A320ceo’s, as well as preferential provider of these services to the aircraft equipped with V2500 engines.
Iberia Maintenance Manager Andy Best says the new contract with Vueling “is a major milestone in our business and a further improvement to our already solid relationship with our partner airline. Apart from strengthening maintenance activity in El Prat, the deal indicates confidence in our work on engines and parts. We feel both pride and a sense of 2 / 2 responsibility on becoming a leading MRO provider to fellow IAG airlines like Vueling, which chose us because of our high standards of quality and efficiency.”
Major overhauls and aircraft handovers in the Barcelona hangar
The agreement is in keeping with Iberia Maintenance’s strategy of building up its Barcelona business, and covers C-checks and 6-year-checks of Vueling’s fleet of A320ceo’s and A320neo’s.
Vueling will also use Iberia Maintenance as preferential partner for pre-handover checks of aircraft sold, leased, or returned.
Iberia’s maintenance hangar at Barcelona’s El Prat airport is staffed by 300 engineers and technicians with a total capacity to supply more than 300,000 person-hours of service per year.
Located at the head of runway 20 at El Prat, the hangar covers 13,200 sq. m of a 24,000 sq. m site. Built in 2019, the mostly glass building is known as “the big smile” because of its shape. With a height of over 40 metres and a length of 200 metres, it can accommodate up to four narrow-bodied aircraft at a time.
Components assistance: wheels, brakes, emergency equipment, etc.
Vueling has also charged Iberia Maintenance with responsibility for ensuring the availability of certain critical aircraft components and equipment, such as wheels and brakes (some 5,000 annual replacements or repairs), emergency equipment, oxygen bottles, cabin crew seats, batteries, evacuation slides, and more.