Air Serbia begins out-of-base maintenance as provider loses approval
Air Serbia has been forced to perform base maintenance of its aircraft outside of its Belgrade hub after its service provider, the Czech-owned Jat Tehnika, had its Part 145 approval suspended by the European Air Safety Agency (EASA), which enables it to work on aircraft operated by European carriers. As a result, Air Serbia, which had its first plane undergo scheduled base maintenance in late September after several months, has sent its jets to Bacau in Romania, as well as Adria Tehnika in Ljubljana, the latter owned by Avia Prime, the same company managing Jat Tehnika. The Serbian carrier has emphasised that base maintenance of its aircraft being performed outside of Belgrade has no impact on the safety of its fleet or its flight schedule.
Jat Tehnika had its approval suspended in late July, however, the European Commission formally announced the decision this week in its progress report on Serbia. With exception of another Serbian maintenance company specialising in light aircraft - GAS Aviation - all other aviation stakeholders in the country passed the EASA audit carried out this summer. “In the domain of aviation safety, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency continues monitoring the application of the EU safety standards implemented in Serbia, and in the course of 2021, it detected several deficiencies in the oversight of certain maintenance organisations, which led to the suspension of two approvals. The Agency will conduct a standardisation inspection in Serbia in April 2022”, the European Commission noted.
Air Serbia had hoped Jat Tehnika would be able to restore its approval by the fall but, as this did not materialise, was forced to seek base maintenance elsewhere. Many airlines perform maintenance work on their aircraft outside of their hub airport or home country, however, it is unknown if the airline has incurred additional costs in doing so. Air Serbia's own maintenance division provides line maintenance for its aircraft, which is certified by EASA. Jat Tehnika, once an integral part of Air Serbia's predecessor Jat Airways, was separated and transformed into a stand-alone state-owned company in 2006. It was privatised and sold for 10.4 million euros in December 2019.
In a statement, Jat Tehnika’s owner Avia Prime said, “The temporary suspension of certificates is quite common in the industry, so there are certain guidelines and procedures we have undertaken. We will submit a plan of concrete measures to EASA to address the three issues that have been pointed out to us. We have informed our customers about our current situation and we did not receive any negative feedback. We do not expect any issues with other contracts as we use other certificates from Jat Tehnika’s rich portfolio on a daily basis. Although we fully respect the Agency’s decision, we will undertake the necessary steps and procedures to restore this temporarily approval suspension”.
0 Response to "Air Serbia begins out-of-base maintenance as provider loses approval"
Post a Comment