SAKHIR AIRBASE, Bahrain - Gulf Air announced today during the Bahrain International Airshow it signed a three-year maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) agreement with JorAMCo, a Jordan based MRO facility, covering the airline’s heavy maintenance and ‘C’ check fleet requirements.

The contract was awarded following a bidding through the government authority, Bahrain Tender Board.  JorAMCo will provide Bahrain’s national carrier with heavy maintenance and ‘C’ checks including C1, C2, C3 and C4 checks for its fleet of 26 Airbus A330, A320-ER, A320 and A321 aircraft. All maintenance will be performed at JorAMCo's facilities at Queen Alia International Airport, Jordan.

Gulf Air performs its own aircraft maintenance, up to and including A-checks, manages the continued airworthiness management organization (CAMO) functions which include engineering support services, aircraft systems and propulsion engineering, technical planning, airworthiness review and maintenance of fleet technical records.

Maher Salman Al Musallam, Gulf Air’s acting chief executive officer, said: “Gulf Air is committed to achieving technical excellence in aircraft maintenance. JorAMCo’s vast experience and high quality technical expertise in the areas of airframe maintenance is the primary reason we selected the company as Gulf Air’s Heavy Maintenance and ‘C’ check MRO provider.

"Secondly, their close proximity to Bahrain has the added benefit that our aircraft will no longer have to leave the region for maintenance, thereby improving efficiency, decreasing turnaround time, reducing ferry charges and ultimately lowering Gulf Air’s operational costs while maintaining the highest quality of safety standards.”

Osama Fattaleh chief executive officer of JorAMCo, added: "We are delighted that Gulf Air, a regional aviation pioneer, has selected JorAMCo as its Heavy Maintenance and ‘C’ check MRO provider for its wide and narrow-body Airbus fleet. With over 50-years’ experience in servicing a wide range of aircraft, including Airbus, Gulf Air is assured of high quality value solutions, superior maintenance services and on-time delivery.”
 
Jamal Hashim, Gulf Air’s acting chief technical officer, said: “Gulf Air’s entire engineering requirement is now based in Bahrain and the Middle East, yielding innumerable benefits for the airline, which directly improve efficiency and passenger experience. Greater aircraft technical dispatch reliability and higher aircraft availability allow us to operate more frequencies and improve our on-time performance; for which we are already a global leader.”