VILNIUS, Lithuania, 13 June 2012. Executives of aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) specialist FL Technics in Vilnius, Lithuania, have signed a long-term line maintenance support agreement with budget airline Wizz Air in Budapest, Hungary, for the airline's two Airbus A320 passenger aircraft.
FL Technics will perform full line and light maintenance services up to C-Check, including but not limited to A-Checks, nondestructive testing borescope inspections, minor component replacement and servicing, scheduled inspections, out-of-phase tasks, full aircraft-on-ground (AOG) support, logistics, and storage of spare parts.
All maintenance services will be done at the FL Technics facilities at Vilnius International Airport, Lithuania. Wizz Air is the largest low-cost carrier in Central and Eastern Europe, FL Technics officials say.
FL Technics holds EASA certificates for integrated narrow- and wide-body aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul services, including EASA Part 145, EASA Part 147, EASA Part M, and Part 21.
Aircraft maintenance checks are periodic inspections for commercial, general-aviation, and military aircraft. Commercial and general-aviation aircraft operators follow inspection programs approved by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or by other airworthiness authorities such as Transport Canada or the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
An A Check happens about every 500 to 800 flight hours, and requires about 20 man-hours of maintenance performed overnight at an airport gate. B Checks are done about every four to six months and require about 150 man-hours of maintenance work done over one to three days at an airport hangar.
C Checks are done about every 15 to 21 months, take the aircraft out of service, and go over the entire aircraft. The C Check usually takes one or two weeks and as much as 6,000 man hours of maintenance work.
The FL Technics agreement involving the Wizz Air Airbus A320s does not include D Checks, which are the most comprehensive and demanding aircraft inspections, and also are known as heavy-maintenance visits (HMVs).
The D Check happens about ever five or six years, and essentially takes the entire airplane apart for inspection and overhaul. Paint often is removed for close inspection of the fuselage metal skin. D-Checks usually take about 40,000 man-hours of maintenance work, and can take as long as two months.
FL Technics provides technical services for the Boeing 737 CL, Airbus A320, SAAB, ATR 42/72, Bombardier CRJ and Embraer 145, as well as for the Boeing 737NG/747/757/767/777 and Airbus A330/A340/A380.
The company offers line and base maintenance, engine and component support, engineering, technical training, landing gear overhaul, logistics and distribution support from the company's two base maintenance facilities in Lithuania and Ukraine, as well as from 32 line stations across Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.
For more information contact FL Technics online at www.fltechnics.com, or Wizz Air at www.wizzair.com.
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