Maintaining quality maintenance is never easy. A little MRO company in Ireland is showing how it can be done, as Roy Allen reports.
H
e had other things on his mind, but if one Barak Obama had been able to look across Dublin
Airport to a particular group of hangars on his Presidential trip back in May of last year, he would have been looking at Ireland’s latest aviation success story. Hangars 1, 4 and 5 constitute the home of Dublin Aerospace, an MRO company only in its third year of trading but which is expanding its operations, taking on staff - and actually earning profits. Two million Euros ($2.8 million) has already been invested this year in an upgrading program and 2012 will see further substantial expansion. Quality aircraft maintenance has been carried out at Dublin Airport for many years, with home Irish airline Aer Lingus originally the prime customer, but all this work appeared to dry up in 2009 when Arab-owned major player SR Technics closed down its entire Irish operations. One-time Aer Lingus technician Conor McCarthy reflected on the empty hangars and skilled redundant workforce and saw this as an opportunity. He approached a group of likely investors that included Tony Fernandes of Air Asia, EADS, Santos Dumont Leasing, Enterprise Ireland and a number of private individuals and in August 2009 reached agreement with SR Technics to purchase some of the assets. With leases secured on the hangars required at Dublin Airport, Dublin Aerospace was born, and this was followed in October 2009 by approvals for EASA Part 145 and Transport Canada, with FAA certification in March 2010. “It was all down to Conor McCarthy,” said Frank Burke, head of sales and marketing, “He saw the possibilities and pulled together a group of investors for the project, which is so far turning out very well.” Indeed. In offering a range of services for the industry covering repair and overhaul of APUs, landing gears and base maintenance work and concentrating on the narrow body, that is, B737/A320, sector, the belief was that the European market could offer a range of potential customers, this market now being very substantial. In the company’s first year of operation, 2010, this proved
Aviation Maintenance |
avm-mag.com | February / March 2012 37
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