Aircraft maintenance is a special engineering operation of the aviation Industries. Amid integration, it is essential to enhance maintenance capacity, boost investment in infrastructure and improve service quality to serve Airlines operating in Vietnam. Reporter of VIB FORUM had an interview with Mr. Tran Van Dong, President & C.E.O Vietnam Airlines Engineering Company (VAECO) about its capacity to provide aircraft maintenance services.
VAECO is ranked the first of Aircraft Maintenance Organization in Vietnam. Could you please give some details on the company’s development roadmap?
VAECO was formerly an Aircraft Maintenance Center A75, A76 and Maintenance Section in the Central region and a part of the Vietnam Airlines’ Departments. After a 30-year operation period, Vietnam Airlines Corporation (Vietnam Airlines)’ technical staffs have actively acquired aircraft engineering technology, ensured absolute safety and satisfied all requirements by Vietnam Airlines, the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, and authorities of international airlines. The government of Vietnam decided to merge Vietnam Airlines’s airlines engineering units into VAECO one-member limited company in 2006 in order to enhance its maintenance capacity and competiveness.
VAECO is currently providing almost technical services for Vietnam Airlines, including line maintenance such as pre-flight/transit check and base maintenances up to 8C check, 12Y check, and 12SC … check for B777, A330, A320/321, ATR-72, and F-70 of Vietnam Airlines’s fleet.
VAECO has a maintenance network across Vietnam and overseas including in Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore and Taiwan as well as for other Vietnam Airlines’s flight routes. This transition will bring a new appearance/ new face in providing maintenance service into Vietnam’s aviation market. We are speeding up developing the trademark of aircraft maintenance in the regional and world markets.
It is said that a few airlines maintenance companies in Vietnam meet international standards. What do you think about this?
I agree with that statement, which may be attributed to the fact that a few investors are keen on airlines engineering, a special technical business. VAECO has advantages over other institutions thanks to its experiences and good infrastructure. In order to become a prestigious trademark in the international’s aviation maintenance market, enterprises must strictly comply with safety regulations of the international aviation industries. However, we are facing a shortage of high-quality human resource.
VAECO is currently the first and biggest aircraft maintenance organization in Vietnam, which is capable of carrying out maintenances for modern aircrafts of AIRBUS, BOEING, ATR…to Vietnam Airlines and other airlines flight to Vietnam. Beside it, VAECO is the only organization in Vietnam which has certified technical training centre.
In order to enhance service quality and prepare for integration trend, the company is actively improving personnel quality with priority given to development of technical staffs, labour discipline, professionalism, and infrastructure (hangar, informative technology system,...) Also, the process of Maintenance Organization Exposition is underway following the international standards (FAR145). This has been considered a key for our company to deeply integrate into the world aviation market.
With such a well-prepared roadmap, what are still challenges to VAECO?
The aviation market is developing rapidly, particularly in Vietnam and Asia-Pacific region, which creates both opportunities and challenges to VAECO. As newly established, many problems still remain, thus we are focusing on measures to meet the market demands, including enhancing human resource quality and upgrading infrastructure …
Luu Hiep
Vietnamese
