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The new aircraft maintenance center of Ural Airlines at Koltsovo airport
Friday February 20, 2015 12:30 MSK / Yulia Kuzmina
On January 28th 2015 Ural Airlines opened the new aircraft maintenance center (AMC) at Koltsovo airport. Only three airlines in Russia have similar facilities. Senior officials of the Ural Region, foreign and Russian partners of the carrier attended the solemn opening ceremony.

The new AMC of Ural Airlines was built in place of an old hangar originally built in 1949. The first hangar was designed to accommodate one Il-14 aircraft. The new facility is able to accommodate four Airbus A321 jets or three airliners: two A321s and one wide-body A330 aircraft. Total area of the facility is 8 256 square meters, which is equivalent to a standard football field. Its height is 27 meters, width – 86 meters, length – 96 meters. The cost of this project is $25 million.

«It was a difficult project, but the result speaks for itself. Our center is the most advanced one in our country. Our airline will be able to carry out the most complicated maintenance checks previously performed only abroad. Now we are able to perform the same checks, but cheaper. We already have some offers from foreign companies,» Ural Airlines CEO Sergey Skuratov said at the opening ceremony.

The new center was built using cutting-edge innovative energy-saving technologies, automatic fire-suppression systems, which allow putting out the fire in several minutes. Unique lighting and heating help create working conditions and save time and human resources. According to preliminary estimates, decrease of the repair time allows the company to provide additional 48 flying hours for each jet annually. The facility meets the highest international standards and has all the required Russian and international certificates.

«The opening of this facility will provide significant economic benefits for the Sverdlovsk Region. The new center will help create new jobs and provide new assignments to the budget.        Savings on MRO services will help the carrier expand its fleet and increase the transport accessibility of the Middle Urals and its investment attractiveness. Today we must use the latest technologies to have a competitive edge, and I’m glad that we are moving forward and providing these advantages in our region,» the governor of Sverdlovsk Region, Evgeny Kuyvashev noted.

«Establishment of such high-tech center will indeed provide a competitive edge not only for the carrier, but also for the whole region,» Julien Franiatte, Managing Director at Airbus Moscow Representative Office, said. He also added that the long-standing partnership with Sverdlovsk Region would continue in terms of purchasing titanium components for Airbus aircraft manufactured at the Middle Urals and deliveries of airliners to the Ural Airlines.

In the end of the ceremony Svyatoslav Poddubniy, who continues the family of aircraft engineers of Ural Airlines, governor Evgeny Kuyvashev, and Sergey Skuratov put a commemorative coin in the foundation of the AMC building.

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