RYANAIR MAINTENANCE GOES TO PRESTWICK
Ryanair will build a second maintenance hangar at Glasgow Prestwick Airport. It is due to open in October 2010 and will create 200 new engineering jobs. While the airline says the 6,000m² hangar will cost £8 million ($12 million), it notes that the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Prestwick Airport secured the investment “despite intense competition from five other Ryanair bases throughout Europe”. The Scottish Government is supporting the project, through Scottish Enterprise, with the offer of £890,000 in Regional Selective Assistance and £640,000 in training grants.

(photo: Boeing)

AUSTRIAN CHANGES ITS MRO
Austrian Airlines is comprehensively restructuring the Technical Operations Division, and reorienting it on the basis of completely revised processes. The aim of this move is to increase productivity and raise cost efficiency in the long term. The new organisational structure of the Technical Operations Division/TD will come into force on 1 March 2010.

BOMBARDIER TAKES OVER ASA MRO IN MACON
Bombardier Aerospace has added a third commercial aircraft service centre to its customer support network. The facility, located in Macon, Georgia and operated by Bombardier Customer Services complements centres in Bridgeport, West Virginia and Tucson, Arizona.

FAA HITS AMERICAN EAGLE
The FAA has proposed a $2.9 million civil penalty against American Eagle Airlines for operating more than 1,000 flights using aircraft on which improper repairs were performed on landing gear doors. The FAA alleges that between February and May 2008, American Eagle conducted at least 1,178 passenger-carrying flights using four Bombardier jets with main landing gear doors that had not been repaired in accordance with an Airworthiness Directive that became effective in August 2006.

SIAEC OPENS A380 HANGAR
SIA Engineering Company (SIAEC) opened an Airbus A380 hangar at Changi on 3 February, its sixth at the airport. The new building incorporates a hydraulically operated, computer-controlled docking system with proximity sensors to detect the aircraft and automatically adjust the docking. It can also be converted to handle a Boeing 777.

NEW MD-80 BASED FREIGHTERS ANNOUNCED
Two new freighter conversion programmes have been announced for the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series of aircraft by Aeronautical Engineers and Wagner Aeronautical.