In advance of the first milestone, the three years in service, of its in-house aircraft painting facility launched by our subsidiary S7 Engineering at its Mineralnye Vody Airport base in September 2014, the ENGINEERING Holding has summed up some of the facility’s operational results.

In the period from October 2016 to April 2017 (this period is considered the “peak season” for Russian MRO providers) ENGINEERING’s painting team painted aircraft for Aeroflot, Rossiya Airlines, Air Astana (Kazakhstan), Zoom Air (India) and other customers.

The total of 20 aircraft passed through the painting facility at Mineralnye Vody, which is double on the same period of 2015-2016. The painting team specifically pointed out their work on painting the brand new livery on 12  Airbus A319/320 and  Boeing 737-800 aircraft for Rossiya Airlines as a particularly interesting experience. The final aircraft under this contract was redelivered to the customer at the end of April.

“To speed up processes within this massive project and to improve quality we had to revise our standard approach to forming work shifts. Qualification of our staff has improved in all aspects – from preparing aircraft for painting and down to applying plackards and stickers and rectifying defects,” Danil Naumenko, deputy director of S 7 ENGINEERING’s Mineralnye Vody base reveals. “We have received a tremendous experience in painting a very complicated livery, our staff have upgraded their skills in working with  base coat / clear coat systems developed by  PPG Aerospace and Akzo Nobel. Rossiya accepted their aircraft through a standard OEM-approved acceptance procedures. All aircraft were rated from “good” in the beginning of the contract to “very good” and “excellent” by the time we completed the contract.”

In the peak season of 2017–2018 ENGINEERING expects its painting facility to be completely loaded. To cater for the existing demand the company is reconstructing and expanding its facilities for interior component painting. ENGINEERING Holding is also continuously upgrading the qualification of its staff.

The painting station’s staff undergo training both in Russia and at international companies, such as Akzo Nobel and PPG Aerospace. “Our latest addition was the Base Coat / Clear Coat MICA system, the approval for which was granted after a training at PPG Aerospace’s center in Barcelona,” Naumenko said.