Ameco, the Chinese-German MRO house, is adding to its extensive capabilities following a subtle but significant rebranding of the 30-year-old business. 

The company, which was formed in 1989 when Air China and Lufthansa signed a cooperation agreement that created the first independently operated aircraft MRO in China, plans a series of major expansions over the next five years as it seeks to cement its position among China’s leading MRO providers. The company intends to open two-bay hangars in Beijing Daxing International Airport and Chengdu, and one-bay hangars in Hangzhou, Wuhan and Guiyang.

The Wuhan and Guiyang facilities will be for narrowbody aircraft overhaul and will additionally house new workshops for cabin interior products, while the Hangzhou hangar will be able to accommodate one Airbus A330 or two A321s. The Chengdu hangar is earmarked for A350 overhaul. 

Ameco’s list of firsts is lengthy. In 1994, it became the first company in China to simultaneously hold maintenance licenses from the US’s Federal Aviation Administration, Europe’s Joint Aviation Authorities (since superseded by EASA), and CAAC, the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The firm says it carried out the first D check of a Boeing 747 in China, a world’s first 5D check of the same platform in 2004, and in 2018 a first-ever D check of a 747-8F. 

In 2015, Air China and Lufthansa redrew their partnership, absorbing previous Ameco functions and integrating the former Air China Technics to create a company now referred to as New Ameco. Air China owns 75%, Lufthansa 25%. The new structure merited a new corporate identity, which Ameco unveiled on September 10 last year – the company’s 30th birthday. The word Beijing no longer appears, in large part to highlight the firm’s widespread presence, with 10 branches across China and more than 200 maintenance stations at home and abroad, in addition to its Beijing headquarters.