SAO PAULO , Sept. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TAM's (NYSE: TAM, BOVESPA: TAMM4) Technological Center, the MRO business unit (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul), has just been certified by the American aviation authority, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), to be able to perform maintenance operations on aircraft registered in the United States. With this seal of quality issued by the U.S. aviation authority, we amplify our array of MRO services offered and become the only Brazilian aviation company certified by the FAA, by the EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) and by the ANAC (Agencia Nacional de Aviacao Civil - Brazilian Civil Aviation Agency).
"Now we are certified by the world's foremost aeronautical authorities. This is a recognition of the quality of our service. With these approvals, we can strengthen our service offering MRO to third parties and meet the major airlines in the market," states Ruy Amparo, Vice President of MRO.
The FAR 145 certification obtained authorizes us to perform all the major programmed maintenance operations (C and D checks), in addition to the revision of different aeronautic components. The process of obtaining this certification took 14 months and was preceded by extensive audits, in which all the technical and quality procedures of our Technological Center were thoroughly checked over and verified by the U.S. aviation authority.
Expansion of services
This last August, we were certified by the DGAC (Direccion General de Aeronautica Civil), the organization from the Chilean government, to service Airbus A318 aircraft and their components for aircraft registered in Chile. The certification was achieved after we were approved by the ANAC to perform maintenance on the Airbus A318 aircraft. It is the unit's first approval for an aircraft model that is not a part of our fleet. We are also certified in Chile to perform maintenance operations on A319, A320 and A321 aircraft.
Our Technological Center has also been approved by the ANAC and by the EASA to carry out all the major programmed maintenance operations on Airbus A318/A319/A320/A321 and A330 aircraft, both in our fleet and on third party aircraft, in addition to Fokker-100 aircraft. In addition, we are certified for the maintenance of components of the Boeing aircraft that are being incorporated into our fleet and we are in the final process of certification for Boeing 767 aircraft.
Since January of 2007, we have had the IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit) certification, the most complete and accepted international acknowledgement in operational safety. The IOSA audit involves more than 950 requirements in 8 operational areas of a single airline company, including engineering and maintenance of aircraft, and others.
Our Technological Center is located in the city of Sao Carlos, in the interior of Sao Paulo State, and covers an area of 4.6 million square meters. In addition to maintenance hangars, the facility houses workshops for examining more than 3,000 aeronautic components.
SOURCE TAM
