The commitment made by Air Canada in 2016 when purchasing aircraft now called A220 is finally materializing: its supplier Avianor will build – with the help of Quebec – a center dedicated to the heavy maintenance of the aircraft. It remains to find other customers, which should not take long, promises the Quebec company.
This expansion of Avianor’s facilities located in Mirabel, in the Laurentians, will cost more than $70 million. The Legault government grants a forgivable loan of 9 million. The details will be unveiled this Tuesday at the Paris Air Show by the company and the Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon.
“We will not be limited to North America”, explains Denis Deschamps, co-founder and president and CEO of DRAKKAR, owner of Avianor, in an interview with La Presse from France. “We already have overseas requests. It is with this in mind that we aim to become a world-class center of excellence. »
Specifically, Avianor will build a hangar of approximately 105,000 square feet (9755 square meters) adjacent to its Mirabel facilities. This will add four maintenance chains capable of accommodating single-aisle aircraft such as the A220, for a total of seven. In 2020, the aircraft maintenance and interior reconfiguration specialist was studying a complex of 250,000 square feet (23,225 square meters). He eventually opted for a smaller hangar intended for “single-aisle specialization”.
Avianor maintains the airframes of A220 aircraft, including the wings, fuselage, landing gear and empennage. Activities should officially start in the fall of 2024, and more than 110 people will join Avianor’s 225 employees. Priority will be given to aircraft formerly built by Bombardier (C Series), but Mr. Deschamps is not closing the door to other single-aisle aircraft programs, such as the Boeing 737 family and the Airbus A330 range.
To ensure the sustainability of this “center of excellence”, Avianor will have to attract other carriers. Most major A220 operators, such as Swiss, Air Baltic and Korean Air Lines, service the aircraft themselves or with other suppliers.
In North America, opportunities could arise with the American companies JetBlue and Breeze Airways. On Monday, the two air carriers did not respond to questions sent by La Presse asking whether they had concluded agreements for the heavy maintenance of their A220s. Delta Air Lines is the other North American operator of the aircraft.
“We are in contact with each of the American companies, said Mr. Deschamps, without however naming them. Our team has done its homework. You have to be able to make an investment of this nature profitable. »
He even hints that European customers could be added.
The construction of the Avianor center is the latest chapter in a saga that dates back more than a decade in the maintenance of Air Canada aircraft.
By placing an order for 45 aircraft that would prove crucial to the survival of what was called the C Series in 2016, Air Canada managed to put a long legal dispute behind it. When the contract was announced, the country’s largest airline had made a commitment to help create a center of excellence for the maintenance of the renamed Airbus A220 aircraft.
Quebec then agreed to end its legal action against Air Canada, which had closed its aircraft maintenance centers in Montreal, Winnipeg and Mississauga in 2012, thus eliminating 2,600 jobs at Aveos, including 1,800 in Quebec. The Quebec state argued that the airline had violated federal law. For its part, Ottawa had amended the law that led to the privatization of Air Canada to remove obligations related to aircraft maintenance.
However, it took a long time to materialize the project for a maintenance center for the A220s. According to Mr. Deschamps, the pandemic has cost “three years”. The agreement between Avianor and Air Canada is for 10 years and is renewable.
