FL Technics Readies Workforce, Customers For Punta Cana Operations

ATLANTA—FL Technics CEO Zilvinas Lapinskas shared more details with Aviation Week Network about the company’s upcoming operations in the Dominican Republic on the sidelines of MRO Americas April 9.

Lapinskas says FL Technics intends to start slowly with five maintenance bays as it gains a better understanding of the Americas market and the needs of its potential customers. He expects the greatest share of business to initially come from U.S. carriers and global lessors, the latter of which have told FL Technics they have difficulties finding maintenance slots.

FL Technics is “in the final stage of signing the contracts” with initial customers, which Lapinskas says are typically 1-2 year contracts for new players as these customers get a feel for the business. He expects this to grow significantly once FL Technics’ Punta Cana facility gets fully up to speed.

While the Punta Cana facility will have five maintenance bays initially, Lapinskas says this will eventually increase to 12, and FL Technics will look at growing this to 19 or 20 bays at a later stage. He notes that each bay will enable aircraft to move in and out of the hangar independently, which he expects to shorten turnaround times and improve operational efficiencies.

Although FL Technics was granted European Union Aviation Safety Agency Part 145 approval for heavy maintenance on Embraer 170s and 1902 last month, Lapinskas says the Punta Cana operation will initially focus on Airbus A320 family, Boeing 737NG and 737 MAX aircraft. “We’re getting different requests and ideas from our potential customers and from OEMs, so time will tell, but at the moment, we will go with these types,” he says.

At first, Lapinskas expects the facility to have around 300-400 staff. “We will start with [staff] coming from our existing facilities in Europe to share the experience and know-how we have in our production, because we want [the Punta Cana] hangar to be like a copy-paste from our European facilities,” he says. “Then we will train locals.”

Lapinskas says FL Technics has good relationships with local universities and wants to “be a good employer for the local people because we are the first base maintenance MRO in the Dominican Republic. And we see that people who left the Dominican Republic to work in aviation maintenance in other countries, like the U.S., are keen to come back.” While he declined to comment on whether this may be due to the Trump administration’s growing anti-immigration stance, stakeholders at Aviation Week’s recent MRO Latin America conference noted that they are also seeing a trend of technicians from the region choosing to move back to their home countries.