Egypt's "emergency room" political turmoil and ongoing resuscitation has hit air transport seriously. But Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) business proves promising to help overcome the crisis. Amirah Ibrahim looks into the business Whereas European inspectors are cautiously conducting an extensive audit of the main overhaul complex and workshops of EgyptAir Maintenance and Engineering (EGME), a number of Arab and European airlines are having their entire fleets overhauled in Egypt. "As part of our continuous and serious work to comply with regulatory requirements, our technical team of engineers and technicians managed to renew the EASA part-145 approval," explained Abdel-Aziz Fadel, EGME chairman and CEO. "All activities and applicable procedures were checked to evaluate their compliance with the applicable regulations and personnel competency." EGME offers line and base maintenance to the national carrier's fleet, which consists of 74 aircraft. Certified by EASA, FAA and ISO 9001:2008, it is also an authorised Aircraft Service Centre for Embraer E-jets. The audit was carried out in Cairo base maintenance, Sharm El Sheikh and Dubai stations. The audit included line maintenance, base maintenance, overhauls workshops and engine workshops." "We have upgraded, adding more aircraft types to our overhauling capabilities, including the B757-200/300, B767-200/300, Airbus A330-200/300 powered by GE CF6 and Embraer E190/195. This certainly adds value to our current capabilities, attracting more customers of airlines operating different aircraft types." With 79 years of experience, EGME currently serves 110 airlines from all over the world. Two months ago, and just before the unrest exploded in Egypt, Alitalia sent part of its Airbus fleet to the overhaul complex in Cairo for repair. The latest customer is the Saudi budget airline National Air Service nasair, whose fleet is being checked in Egypt. EGME won the bidding to provide heavy checks for five nasair A320 aircraft. "We are very proud and happy that the airline, which is not only considered as one of the top airlines of Saudi Arabia but also of the Arab region, has trusted our experts and facilities to take care of the repair and overhaul work of the fleet," said chairman Massoud. Prominent integrated MRO service providers represented a great number of the bidders from Europe, Africa and the Middle East, he added. Established in February 2007, nasair is the first Saudi budget airline which offers affordable easy-to-purchase fares, and operates the youngest fleet in the kingdom. It used to compete with another Saudi budget airline SAMA, which was closed down four months ago, and nasair seized its local market share. Today the airline operates to more than 30 domestic and international destinations, with over 450 flights a week. "When customers are seeking the best value in travel within the region they can choose our low fare at flynas.com and select the services and options appropriate to their travel needs," commented Ayed Al-Jeaid nasair's chairman . "We are confident about the professional technical services provided by EGME which will help us achieve our final target: to please our customers and provide the utmost comfort we can," he added. According to Fadel, both EGME and nasair had a cooperative record over the past two years. "We provided nasair before with multiple MRO services in Riyadh, Cairo and other outstations. Furthermore, we are confident in providing nasair with services that will fully satisfy their expectations, especially because of our topnotch teamwork which operates according to international quality standards and is backed by a round-the-clock customer support team."
