SriLankan Engineering, the technical arm of SriLankan Airlines has completed a training programme for engineering staff of Airblue,
Pakistan’s fastest growing domestic airline.“Airblue is one more customer airline that we are looking forward to a
long-term relationship with, as part of our active programme of offering
Third Party Maintenance Facilities to other airlines,” said Captain Dick
Hutton, Chief Technical Officer of SriLankan. “We are presently in
discussions with several carriers including those in India, Sri Lanka
and the Middle East, offering our expertise in many types of maintenance
activities. We are confident that we now have both the necessary
expertise and the facilities.”

SriLankan Engineering has invested heavily in greatly enhancing its
facilities and capabilities at Bandaranaike International Airport,
Katunayake, in order to provide services to other airlines. This
resulted in Emirates Airline contracting SriLankan for a major
Maintenance Check (known as a 4C5Y Check which is conducted
approximately every five years on an aircraft) which was completed in
July, a major milestone for SriLankan Engineering which was given the
complicated task ahead of other reputed airline maintenance
organisations.

 

SriLankan’s Technical Training School, which is a section of SriLankan
Engineering and provides comprehensive training for both pilots and
engineering staff, has already obtained certifications from the aviation
authorities of Pakistan and the Maldives, in addition to Sri Lanka’s own
Civil Aviation Authority.

 

“We are seeking partnerships with several other countries and civil
aviation authorities, including the European authority EASA, which will
enable us to train aviation professionals from many more countries,”
said Harsha Priyadarshan, Technical Training Manager. “We expect more
groups of staff from Airblue for training in the future.”

 

The 6-day course for Radio Engineers was conducted by SriLankan’s
in-house Trainers at its Technical Training School. Participants
included six Engineers from Airblue and one Inspector from the Pakistan
Civil Aviation Authority.

 

Airblue, launched in May 2004, operates 30 flights a day to seven
cities in Pakistan, and one international destination - Dubai. It
currently has a fleet of six aircraft - twin-engined Airbus A320s and
A321s - and has announced plans to order several more A320 and A330
aircraft.

 

SriLankan Engineering is especially skilled in providing services to
Airbus aircraft, which the airline has operated for more than 15 years.
SriLankan has a fleet of 4-engined A340s and twin-engined A330s, both of
which are wide-bodied long-haul aircraft, and shorter-ranged
twin-engined A320s.
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