SriLankan Engineering has completed a significant project to
reconfigure the passenger cabins on two Airbus A321 aircraft of
Pakistan’s airline Airblue.Captain Dick Hutton, Chief Technical Officer of SriLankan, said: “The
programme undertaken for Airblue is yet another feather in the cap of
SriLankan Engineering. We are expanding our aircraft engineering
services for other airlines, which serve as an important source of
revenue for the company, and foreign exchange for the country.”

SriLankan Engineering is the aircraft maintenance arm of SriLankan
Airlines, and has in recent years invested heavily towards upgrading its
engineering facilities at Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport
(BIA).

 

D.A.G. Jayasuriya, Senior Manager Aircraft Engineering said: “SriLankan
Engineering has been busy in the past few months. We just completed
major maintenance checks on two Airbus A330-200 aircraft of our
strategic partner Emirates and we are in discussions with several
airlines for future projects.”

 

Privately owned Airblue is Pakistan’s fastest growing airline. Launched
in May 2004, it now operates flights to seven cities throughout
Pakistan, and connects four of those cities directly with Dubai. The
10-day programme in late May and early June was to prepare the Airblue
fleet to commence operations to Manchester in June. This involved the
complete removal of seating and reconfiguration of both Business Class
and Economy Class cabins.

 

Ian Dunning, Senior Manager Aircraft Maintenance, said: “The Aircraft
Engineers and Technicians of SriLankan Engineering have earned a
reputation for excellence over the years, and these projects tend to
strengthen their already considerable experience, especially with regard
to Airbus aircraft.”

 

SriLankan itself has a fleet comprising Airbus A340, A330 and A320
aircraft and also carried out routine maintenance work on aircraft of
Airbus, Boeing and other manufacturers for airlines that operate to BIA.

 

The impressive standards of SriLankan Engineering in aircraft
maintenance were recognized by Airbus Industrie itself with the global
award of “World’s Most Efficient Operator of Airbus A330s” in the small
fleet category. SriLankan Engineering is currently carrying out further
improvements to its facilities in order to obtain certification in the
European Aviation Engineering standard EASA 145. This would enable the
airline to provide maintenance services for aircraft operated under this
regulatory standard, and greatly increase its marketability.
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