The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has approved SriLankan Engineering to carry out base maintenance operations on Airbus A330 aircraft as per EASA Part-145 regulations.

SriLankan Engineering is the aircraft Maintenance-Repair-Overhaul (MRO) arm of SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka.

This certification completes the requirements for SriLankan Engineering to conduct base maintenance operations on the A320, A321 and A330 families of aircraft of all airlines operating to Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA).

This includes the entire SriLankan Airlines fleet, which is comprised of A320, A321 and A330 aircraft. Earlier this year, EASA certified SriLankan Engineering as an MRO approved for EASA Part-145 Base Maintenance operations for Airbus A320 aircraft.

EASA is the aviation regulatory arm of the European Union with authority over airline industry matters, and maintains the highest global standards for airlines to comply with.

Vipula Gunatilleka, Group chief executive officer of SriLankan Airlines, said: “We are pleased to announce that we can now recommence our full services for other airline customers, as well as for our own fleet, and look forward to working closely again with both our existing customers and new customers. SriLankan Engineering is an important department of our airline and this new certification will undoubtedly enhance its capabilities and ability to contribute more actively to the bottom-line of the company.”

D A G Jayasuriya, chief technical officer of SriLankan Airlines, said: “SriLankan Engineering has undergone a considerable transformation over the past two years to enhance and upgrade its facilities, organizational structure, and professional capabilities. We possessed these certifications for many years, but took a decision to voluntarily suspend the certifications while we carried out our upgrading programme, as it required the full attention of our staff and involved construction activities in some of our hangar facilities that restricted their availability for aircraft related work.”

A team of auditors from EASA monitored the enhancements and carried out a full audit prior to reinstating the certifications. During the period of upgrading, SriLankan continued to hold all necessary certifications of the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL), which is the licensing authority for SriLankan’s own fleet.

SriLankan also possesses EASA certifications for its Line Maintenance and Engineering Workshops, including type certification of aircraft operated and EASA certified Part 147 Training.

The enhancements included enlargement of the floor area in SriLankan Engineering’s Main Hangar to allow more aircraft to be served simultaneously; and enclosing of the Main Hangar with the installation of a new hangar door. Similar enhancements were completed earlier this year on SriLankan Engineering’s smaller hangar that is dedicated for A320 aircraft. – TradeArabia News Service