ATR, the European manufacturer of turboprop aircraft, and the national Moroccan airline Royal Air Maroc have announced the signature of a Global Maintenance Agreement for the airline’s new fleet of ATR ‘-600’ aircraft.

Signed for an initial period of four years, the contract covers the four ATR 72-600s already owned by the airline.

Having received its first ATR 72-600 in August 2011, Royal Air Maroc was the first operator in the world to use the aircraft.

As set out in this GMA contract, ATR will manage all aspects of maintenance and repair for some equipment for the airline’s ATR ‘-600’ fleet.

This equipment includes LRUs and propeller blades.

By signing this contract, ATR guarantees Royal Air Maroc the permanent availability of these spare parts from its logistics centre in Paris.

The airline will also use ATR exclusively for all of its maintenance procedures, thus benefitting from the manufacturer’s expertise.

This, it is hoped, will have a positive impact on maintenance costs per flight hour.

With regards to this contract, Zouhair Mohamed El Aoufir, deputy general manager, Royal Air Maroc stated: “We are proud to be the first operator of these new ATR ‘-600’ aircraft and we are very happy with the technical reliability of these aircraft, which we have already been operating for nearly two years.

“It is now time to develop our partnership further with ATR through the signing of this agreement.

“This will allow us to be able to continue to optimize the operation of our new fleet and to offer a high quality service to our passengers.”

Nearly 300 ATR airplanes currently in operation are covered by GMA with ATR.

This represents nearly a third of ATR’s total operational fleet.