EasyJet is to bring more maintenance in-house after agreeing to acquire SR Technics’ facility in Malta.
Heavy maintenance of easyJet-operated narrowbody aircraft has occurred at the six-bay facility for several years under contract with SR Technics Malta.
The Switzerland-headquartered MRO company said it was selling the facility as part of its strategy to focus more on engine maintenance and to move out of airframe work, which is relatively low-margin work in the aftermarket.
EasyJet, in contrast, is moving in the other direction as a growing fleet of now more than 340 aircraft build the economic case for performing maintenance work itself.
The airline’s main rival, Ryanair, is also boosting its in-house capacity, having last year announced plans to build a new four-bay hangar at Dublin Airport as part of a €40 million ($43.5 million) investment it will make in the facility there.
That easyJet is buying from SR Technics also marks a fitting close to a European maintenance story that exemplifies how the low-cost carrier and MRO markets have influenced each other as both have developed.
In the early 2000s, one of the main features of low-cost carrier strategy was to outsource all non-core work, and one of the landmark deals in this regard was a $1 billion, full-support maintenance contract that easyJet awarded to SR Technics at the time.
This contract utilized a new concept called equalized maintenance, which was developed by SR Technics in cooperation with Airbus and easyJet.
Also known as ‘E checks,’ the concept combined the tasks of A and C checks into a schedule of 36 work packages—usually performed overnight—intended to cut Airbus A320 downtime by 17 days over six years.
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