Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, announced today that it is insourcing its Fleet Technical Management(FTM) responsibility. This move, a major milestone in Gulf Air’s history, underscores the airline’s engineering expertise and technical capabilities to undertake base-maintenance of its entire fleet completely in-house, bringing in a range of cost-saving and operational benefits for the airline.
Announcing the news today at a function held in a hangar at Bahrain International Airport, Gulf Air CEO Samer Majali said, “This is truly a major milestone for Gulf Air as we take charge of full Fleet Technical Management (FTM) responsibility, demonstrating our strong in-house technical expertise. In-sourcing is a key part of our overall business strategy as it allows us to refocus on our engineering & maintenance systems and processes so that we achieve technical self-reliance and self-sufficiency.”
He added, “This move allows us full control over the quality of aircraft servicing and safety standards, operational reliability, a robust aircraft maintenance system, fleet planning and availability. We are proud now that we have our own team of qualified engineers and highly skilled technicians with several years of experience, who will now take over the responsibility.I also see potential opportunities for more, technically qualified Bahrainis to join the national carrier in the near future.”
“In addition, by insourcing, we are significantly reducing the maintenance cost, resulting in much-wanted cost-savings to the companywhich is very important at this juncture.We aspire that soon Bahrainhas its own full-fledged MRO entity that will not only take care of Gulf Air fleet’smaintenance but also undertake fleet maintenance for other airlinesand thus making Bahrain an aviation MRO hub in the region.”
“My congratulations to the engineering and maintenance team, who have been working tirelessly to make this happen,” concluded Mr Majali.
Added Mr. Jamal Hashim, Director Engineering & Airworthiness, “Insourcing has always been our goal and I am glad it has finally been achieved. This is truly a demonstration of our in house engineering expertise that has been behind Gulf Air achieving several milestones in the past such as the Part 145 (Maintenance Organization)and Continued Airworthiness Management Organization (CAMO)approvals.”
He added, “We will now be able to improvefurther our safety and airworthiness standard through tighter control and improved compliance that will also lead to a greater aircraft technical dispatch reliability, on-time performance and higher aircraft availability. This would mean our aircraft are even better in terms of safety and quality, our fleet will be on-time, every time, and we will be able to operate more frequencies due to higher availability of aircraft.”
Gulf Air will now be performing on its own all aircraft maintenance, up to and including A-checks. It will also be fully managing its Continued Airworthiness Management Organization CAMO functions which include, engineering support services, aircraft systems and propulsion engineering, technical planning, airworthiness review and maintenance of fleet technical records. In addition, Gulf Air will fully manage its Inventory Technical Management (ITM) covering materials planning, warehouse and logistics, warranty and repair management and, technical procurement.
