Russian MRO provider T1 has partnered with the Czech peer Job Air Technic to create a technical support centre in Ulyanovsk.
Under the memorandum – signed during a Russian visit by the Czech Republic's president Milos Zeman – the $40 million joint venture is to be located within a special economic zone next to Ulyanovsk Vostochny airport.
T1 envisions a hangar capable of accommodating three widebodies or up to a dozen narrowbodies.
Construction on the site is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2018, with the first phase to be completed by 2020.
The project, dubbed Technic One, has been on T1's drawing board for the past five years. In 2013, the company signed a letter of intent with US maintenance provider AAR, aiming to have Technic One up and running by mid-2014, but the venture failed to materialise.
General director Muharbek Aushes is confident that there is still a strong business case for the enterprise, which is intended to provide technical support for Irkut MC-21 twinjets and a range of Western-built models, including the Boeing 737, Airbus A320 family and A350.
Ulyanovsk economic zone administration director Denis Baryshnikov says the proposed joint venture will, as a zone resident, be entitled to tax and custom-duty breaks.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
