Air Astana steps up cooperation with Chinese aircraft maintanence company

Kazakhstan national air carrier Air Astana is stepping up its cooperation with Chinese partners who provide maintenance of aircraft, Tengrinews reports.

The fleet of the Kazakhstani company now consists of 30 aircraft with an average age of six years. Regardless of age, according to technical regulations, every aircraft must undergo maintenance after a certain number of flight hours.

There are three kinds of technical inspections: transit servicing when an aircraft is checked and minor damages are fixed at an airport; linear (A-Check) &ndash an airplane is maintained at its base, in this case at the airports of Almaty and Astana; Basic (C-Check) &ndash a more in-depth inspection of an aircraft, when a comprehensive inspection of the fuselage is conducted, parts replaced and major systems of the aircraft are checked and repaired.

Performing C-Checks requires large hangars, special equipment and trained personnel. In addition, to conduct the basic maintenance fast a well-established supply chain of spare parts is required. Currently, the Kazakhstan national carrier is cooperating with China's aircraft maintenance company HAECO that performs the listed works for it.

"We are working with HAECO since 2012. During this time, virtually all the aircraft of our fleet, except for Embraer 190s, have passed service checks there at least once. Now, we have Airbus A321 passing its second C-Check there, which will last for nine days. During this time, all the important aircraft systems will be checked, maintenance of the engine will be performed and all the necessary modifications will be completed. After that it will be ready for operation and will be back here only after 6-7 thousand hours of flight time. (...) In general, we are pleased with the quality of works performed by the company and the existing relationship with our Chinese partners," the commercial director of the engineering and technical support of Air Astana Grigoriy Zyryanov said.

HAECO also specializes in designing interior of aircraft. Recently, Air Astana ordered three new Boeing-767s and it was precisely this company which equipped their interior.

"In total, we serve about 70-80 aircraft of various airlines annually. We now have a long-term contract with Air Astana for the next few years. (...) We also have clients for whom we create VIP-interiors in private jets. Here it all depends on the customer. We listen to their wishes and fulfill them. Some order expensive furniture, others want to have a full bedroom and a movie theater on board. If Kazakhstan customers need such service, we will gladly provide it," said the Vice President for Commercial Affairs of HAECO in Xiamen Justin Chen.

Reporting by Vladimir Prokopenko, writing by Dinara Urazova