Iberia To Begin Airbus A350 Base Maintenance

MADRID—Following authorization from the Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency (AESA), Iberia Maintenance has approval without limitations to provide comprehensive maintenance on the Airbus A350.

“Our first A350 for base maintenance arrives in the hangar on Sept. 26,” Natalia Martínez del Río, Iberia airframe services director, told Aviation Week on Sept. 24 in Iberia’s MRO center at La Munoza near Madrid. “We are very excited. But it is also a big challenge. Even though it is an Airbus aircraft, it is a new generation of aircraft.”

Iberia’s Madrid MRO facility currently performs base maintenance for all Airbus A319/A320/A321ceo and A320/A321neo family aircraft, the A321XLR and A330-200/-300s. Iberia Maintenance performs more than 120 base maintenance checks annually. Its new approval from AESA follows two years of work during which more than 150 action lines were developed in areas including training, engineering, production, infrastructure and documentation.

“Our initial aim was to present all the capacity reports to the authorities in June, and we achieved that,” Martínez del Río said. “At the end of August, the authority came here to audit all the processes.”

Iberia Maintenance passed the audit without any findings. The investment is about €8 million ($8.48 million) and marks the first time that the company has requested approval for a new aircraft type in maintenance without limitations.

“We can do everything,” Martínez del Río said.

Iberia’s first A350 check will be a C-Check, and the aircraft will be in the hangar for about 15 days. “We also will do additional controls to be sure that everything is okay,” Martínez del Río added.

Iberia Maintenance will begin with smaller A350 base maintenance checks and build up from there. Base maintenance for a 12-year check on an A330 includes 20,000 working hours and takes around 40 days.

“This year, I guess we will have five or six checks on the A350s,” Martínez del Río said. “Our people have a lot of experience. They need to get familiar and confident with that aircraft, so we can do it.”

According to data from CAPA - Centre for Aviation, Iberia operates 23 Airbus A350-900s, with eight additional aircraft on order. The first A350 flight for Iberia took place in 2017. Last year, Iberia sent some A350s to Lufthansa Technik for six-year checks.

“Our focus is to provide all the flexibility to cover the needs our airline has,” Martínez del Río said. “It’s about how we can maximize the aircraft availability from heavy maintenance to the airline.”

She added, “For us the A350 base maintenance is the next step in our life, and this is a milestone. This is key for the flexibility the airline needs.”