Sichuan Taeco Maintenance Hangar, the largest aircraft maintenance base in China, laid the cornerstone

The cornerstone laying ceremony for the Sichuan Taeco Maintenance Hangar was held at Chengdu Shuangliu Airport on June 18th. Thanks to the total investment of 1.2 billion Yuan, the project would build the largest aircraft maintenance base in China to carry out the maintenance of 4 A340 series and 4 A320 series aircraft at the same time. The goal was to construct the largest aircraft maintenance base in the Asian-Pacific region to attract aircraft from all over the world for overhaul in Chengdu.
 

The cornerstone laying ceremony for the Sichuan Taeco Maintenance Hangar was held at Chengdu Shuangliu Airport on June 18th. Thanks to the total investment of 1.2 billion Yuan, the project would build the largest aircraft maintenance base in China to carry out the maintenance of 4 A340 series and 4 A320 series aircraft at the same time. The goal was to construct the largest aircraft maintenance base in the Asian-Pacific region to attract aircraft from all over the world for overhaul in Chengdu.
The ceremony marked the official commencement of the Sichuan Taeco Project. It was reported that the Sichuan Taeco Project is located to the north of the runway of the Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, with the area of about 450 mu and total investment of 1.2 billion Yuan. It will construct professional A320 narrow hanger and A340 wide hanger as well as auxiliary buildings. The project is divided into four phases. Phase I commenced on June 18th, has an investment of 150 million Yuan and will be put into service in July 2010. This includes the construction of hangars, outside aerodrome, auxiliary facilities and buildings as well as the procurement of basic maintenance equipment, in relation to aircraft maintenance. Sichuan Taeco would become the largest aircraft maintenance base in China, said Lan Xinguo, Chairman of Sichuan Airlines Co., Ltd. (hereinafter refered to as “Sichuan Airlines”), as it could provide the maintenance services to 4 A340 series and 4 A320 series aircraft at the same time and no less than 3,000 technical positions after the project would be entirely completed. The establishment of the Sichuan Taeco Base would fill in the lack of large professional aircraft maintenance bases in China. Chengdu has experienced very fierce competition to bring the Base here, and five years had been spent on negotiations and preparations. Last July, Sichuan Taeco Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. was formed under the great supports of Sichuan Province, Chengdu City and Shuangliu County, and jointly invested by Sichuan Airlines Co., Ltd., Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co., Ltd., Taeco (Xiamen) Aircraft Engineering Co., Ltd. and Sichuan Haite Hi-tech Co., Ltd., among which Sichuan Airlines and Haite Hi-tech held 51% of the shares. Chen Bingjie, General Manager of Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co., Ltd. and Chairman of Taeco (Xiamen) Aircraft Engineering Co., Ltd., said that he was very confident in the future development of Chengdu, especially in the aviation industry, and the reason why Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co., Ltd. selected Chengdu as the first Western city to put its investment in was the potential development of Chengdu in aircraft maintenance as it is the crossroad of aviation in West China. Sichuan Taeco would be constructed and developed into an aircraft maintenance enterprise known around the world. Sichuan Airlines currently owns 40 passenger aircraft, since they purchased their first A320 aircraft in 1995. However, it had always flown its aircraft to France for overhaul since there was no aircraft maintenance base in China. China has more than 400 passenger aircraft in commission, which would be a very big market. Moreover, the Sichuan Taeco Base would attract the airlines at home and abroad to bring their aircraft to Chengdu for overhaul. Thousands of aircraft maintenance workers would be needed after the Base was completed. During the project construction, Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co., Ltd. would establish a school to train the professional workers for aircraft maintenance.