GE Aviation praises Oman Air for record engine change of Boeing 787 in 20 hours

January 8, 2018: Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman recently received complements from GE Aviation, for its record breaking Boeing 787 engine change. The procedure was completed barely in 20 hours, earning Oman Air world-wide recognition for its remarkable engineering feat.

The record breaking achievement was acknowledged at the recent Dubai Air show, where Oman Air's evp engineering & maintenance, Ali Redha Mohammed Al Lawatiya received commendations for showcasing outstanding capability and competency of its engineering team, which perform the critical task in a short time frame.

The achievement was accomplished in line with Oman Air's Engineering and Maintenance objectives, which aims to maintain, safe and efficient operation.

Lawatiya said: "I am delighted to accept this commemoration on behalf of Oman Air's hardworking engineering & maintenance team. We are a dedicated team, and our goal is to respond to engineering issues in the quickest and most efficient way possible. This recent recognition from GE Aviation is an acknowledgement of Oman Air's strong position in the airline industry that we are fully committed to delivering the best possible service to guests and a critical part of this is to ensure the highest quality of engineering & maintenance services to our aircraft."

Oman Air engineering & maintenance functions round-the-clock to provide services to Oman Air's own fleet and third party aircraft, with routine maintenance inspections, including 'A' checks, minor aircraft repairs, modifications and aircraft component replacements.

The team was focussed on ensuring the effectiveness of the maintenance schedule and extended its in-house capabilities. The outsourced heavy maintenance (C-check) for Airbus 330 are being undertaken every 24 months instead of 18 months, by accommodating the 18 months maintenance checks for its 10 existing A330 in-house aircrafts.

Another improvement on a wider scale has also been achieved on the B737 fleet, which earlier required heavy maintenance (C-check) approximately every 24 months. The engineering & maintenance team with the support of Boeing managed to escalate the heavy maintenance interval to 36 months, and for the A-check maintenance from approximately 60 days interval to 120 days resulting in better utilisation of maintenance ground time and an increase in aircraft operational availability

Oman Air engineering division has extended its technical capabilities for handling British Airways B787, Qatar airways Airbus 350 and Sri Lankan Airlines A320 neo aircraft types. The service platform includes full technical handling of customer aircraft at the Sohar International Airport, in Oman.

With additional capabilities added to its existing operation, Oman Air engineering is committed to maintaining the highest standards of safety and audit status, which was in sync with the audits conducted by EASA & IOSA of the engineering & maintenance division.