Three years after obtaining a maintenance contract for the A220 aircraft piloted by Air Canada, the Avianor company has unveiled the outlines of its project which will be set up in Mirabel in the fall of 2024, but it will be of a less than originally envisaged.
The company announced on Tuesday the start of construction of its “Center of Excellence”, as part of the Paris Air Show. This is an investment of $70 million, which includes assistance of $9 million from the Quebec government. The 105,000 square foot hangar should allow the creation of 100 specialized jobs.
Having a center specialized in the maintenance of Airbus A220 aircraft, built in Mirabel and Mobile in Alabama, will allow Avianor to stand out by doing “predictive maintenance”, explains in an interview Denis Deschamps, President and Chief the management of DRAKKAR (Avianor’s parent company).
“That is, being able to predict that certain parts will fail at different times, based on our ability to manage our data with artificial intelligence to prevent premature failures which would be extremely expensive. »
However, the center will be smaller than originally planned. In February 2020, the company mentioned a 250,000 square foot hangar and “several hundred jobs, see up to 1,000 positions”.
“Originally, we had a little more ambition,” says Mr. Deschamps. We were looking to accommodate (to do maintenance) jumbo jets in the new facilities and the A220. It was a more aggressive position, but riskier. »
Avianor will continue to service large aircraft in its other hangars, but has chosen to specialize its interventions on single-aisle aircraft in the new center in order to put forward its “world-class” expertise in the A220.
Air Canada is an Avianor customer, which is currently in discussions with other American and European carriers to service their A220s. “All A220 owners look at their options,” underlines Mr. Deschamps. Naturally, I will keep the steps taken confidential, but we are having discussions. »
The agreement between Air Canada and Avianor stems from a promise by the air carrier, made in 2016, to establish a “center of excellence” in Quebec where the maintenance of the A220 would be done for a minimum period of 20 years.
In 2016, Air Canada announced an order for 45 Bombardier C-Series aircraft, which became the A220 after the program was sold to Airbus.
In exchange for Air Canada’s promise to maintain the aircraft in Quebec, the government dropped its lawsuit in connection with the closure of the Aveos maintenance company in 2012, which had more than 2,600 employees, including 1,800 Montreal.
Air Canada announced in February 2020 that Avianor would be responsible for maintenance. The announcement was made a little less than a month before Quebec found itself confined due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic forced a certain postponement of the project while Avianor focused in particular on the transformation of passenger plane into cargo plane. “When the borders reopened and we had better visibility on what happened next, we continued the process. […] It’s still a long process, it involves major investments and there is an investment by the government that is important. »
Supply chain disruptions during the pandemic have brought the importance of supplier proximity back to the forefront, notes Deschamps. The proximity of Air Canada, which has its head office in Montreal, and Airbus, which builds the A220 in Mirabel, works in favor of Mirabel.
“We receive a lot of planes in Canada and in North America, a lot of planes from Europe. Naturally, it’s easier to stay in the same time zone and come to Quebec on the day when they have issues with a plane that needs repairs as soon as possible to leave. »