Just a week after sealing a 5 year deal with FastJet to provide general service and maintenance to its Airbus A319 fleet set to be based out of Dar es Salaam, Belgium's Sabena Technics, today, extended an existing contract with yet another Tanzanian carrier, Precision Air (PW), to now provide component support for its new fleet of ATR 42-600s and ATR72-600s. |
| A Precision Air ATR72-500 (Precision Air) |
The Belgian MRO provider already has a 5-year long contract with Precision Air, signed in August 2010, for component repair and overhaul services, including pool access with
an advanced standard exchange components service.
Precision Air will, beginning next month, phase-into its fleet an additional four ATR42-600s with an ATR72-600 to be delivered in 2014.
In early October, Precision Air shareholders approved a board decision not to pay
dividends for the 2011/2012 Financial Year, and instead voted to use the profit the company made (USD404'458) to modernize the airline’s
fleet, which currently consists of five ATR72-500s,
four ATR42s and three Boeing 737-300s. In the long run, the carrier plans to spend USD90million over the next 3
years on upgrading its fleet, which should eventually see the airline launch flights to Europe, the Middle East and Asia in the next five years.
“I would like to thank Precision Air for the renewed trust they placed in our company”, commented Rodolphe Marchais, Chairman & CEO of Sabena technics. “As the leading ATR maintenance provider, we have been preparing for the ATR-600s, developing the right capability and making the appropriate investments. Today, we are proud to welcome Precision Air as our first ATR-600s customer”
As part of the risk involved, Precision Air's aggressive expansion plan will see the company’s debt exceed its assets by USD19million, on account of loans it took from Citibank International, the Finnish Fund for Industrial Development and the IFC.