At a ceremony at Airbus’ facility in Toulouse, Patrick Gavin, Executive Vice President, Customer Services and Gérard Misrai, Deputy Senior Vice President, Engineering and Technical Services, were presented with a renewed JAR 145 no. F-100 certificate by René Gaudin, head of the Direction Générale l’Aviation Civile (DGAC).

Although the Airbus Maintenance Organisation has been approved for many years by the National Authorities, this is the first certificate issued to the integrated Airbus company by DGAC, on behalf of the European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA), and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US.

Dr H.J. Loss, Vice President Technical Operations with Lufthansa, was also present at the ceremony and represented the first customer of the Airbus integrated maintenance organisation.

The certificate replaces four separate JAR 145 approvals held by the partner companies in France, Germany, Spain and the UK prior to the creation of Airbus SAS. It allows Airbus to simplify the release process for repaired or modified aircraft.

A task force within Airbus spent roughly one year to consolidate maintenance and repair procedures and resources from the four pre-integration companies, into one core team supporting the maintenance base in Toulouse.

A single management system has now been established and a central qualification process has been extended to all staff.

The number of operational manuals has been reduced from five to one and the number of different procedures has been drastically reduced. These will be used by all maintenance and repair staff across Airbus.

A leading aircraft manufacturer with the most modern and comprehensive product line on the market, Airbus is a global company with design and manufacturing facilities in France, Germany, the UK, and Spain as well as subsidiaries in the U.S., China and Japan. Headquartered in Toulouse, France, Airbus is an EADS joint Company with BAE SYSTEMS.

——-