China Eastern Airlines Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (Shanghai) Co Ltd was officially unveiled on Sept 2 in the Yangshan Free Trade Zone of Shanghai's Lin-gang Special Area, alongside the opening of Asia's largest wide-body aircraft maintenance hangar.

The newly opened maintenance facility spans about 46,000 square meters, with its main hall measuring 313 meters wide and 146 meters deep, equivalent to the size of six and a half soccer fields.

The facility can accommodate nine wide-body aircraft and two narrow-body planes simultaneously for maintenance operations.

The hangar is connected to Shanghai Pudong International Airport's main takeoff and landing area and terminal via the extended taxiway of the fifth runway.

China Eastern Airlines Aircraft Maintenance Engineering plans to boost its aircraft maintenance and component repair capabilities, increasing its annual man-hours to 2 million and creating 1,000 new jobs over the next five years.

The new hangar will work in tandem with the large aircraft industrial park in Lin-gang, attracting upstream and downstream aerospace suppliers and helping to establish a larger aviation maintenance industry cluster.

The company plans to expand its maintenance capacity to include 10 wide-body aircraft maintenance lines, two narrow-body lines, and a dedicated painting line by 2030.

It will also explore a bonded maintenance model, under which goods with damaged components, functional failures, or quality defects can be imported under bonded status for testing and repair within the bonded zone before being re-exported.

The company has so far delivered nearly 1,900 aircraft to more than 40 Chinese and international airlines and aircraft leasing companies, including China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and All Nippon Airways. Its annual output value is around 550 million yuan ($81.94 million).

Source: Shanghai Observer