ZURICH, Switzerland - UK's second largest low-cost airline easyJet Plc has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Zurich-based supplier SR Technics to maintain its Airbus A319 planes for the next decade. The deal is reportedly worth $1 billion for the life of the contract.
As a part of the agreement, SR Technics will provide full technical maintenance for the Airbus fleet and also have an agent stationed at Easyjet's 67 airports. This arrangement is expected to save around £10 million for the British company in 2006. This figure is projected to increase to around 25 percent of the total Airbus maintenance costs over the next decade. Easyjet, which currently operates 54 A319 aircraft, has plans to raise this number to 120 by 2007. SR Technics currently supplies technical expertise to the company and it won the contract in a bidding process that had 14 other bidders. "This is a very significant deal in our industry in terms of the size of the fleet involved and easyJet has demonstrated a considerable amount of trust and belief in SR Technics," said Frank Turner, Chairman, at SR Technics Holding. "What SR Technics provides to its customers is a uniquely integrated system offering substantial practical business benefits on top of the outstanding levels of quality, reliability, aircraft availability and safety, which have made us leaders in the field," he added.
Ray Webster, the Chief Executive Officer at EasyJet was equally confident that the move to award the contract to SR Technics made business sense, "This 10 year deal provides easyJet with a reduction in Airbus maintenance costs, excluding engines, of greater than 25% over the life of the contract and a saving of over GBP10 million on maintenance costs for the coming financial year," he observed.
Posted
on : Thu, 18 Aug 2005 20:05 GMT | Business News
By : Chris Rowe
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