TAT Engineering secures EASA Part 145 certificate

The company can service and repair heat exchangers for the most popular aircraft types (Artyom Karasyov / Engineering Holding)

Novosibirsk-based TAT Engineering, a joint venture between TAT Technologies and Russia’s largest independent MRO provider Engineering Holding, has received EASA Part 145 approval.

The certificate entitles the company to service and repair heat exchange systems on the most popular Western aircraft types. TAT Engineering expects to launch full-scale operations in the second half of this year. It also intends to receive a similar approval from the US FAA to boost its business development.

The company obtained its EASA Part 145 approval for heat exchanger repairs on May 5, Business Development Director Alexander Filippov told Russian Aviation Insider. Potential clients include Turkish Technic and Lufthansa Technik.

“We understand that it makes little sense to limit our business activities to Russian airlines,” Filippov explained. “But getting individual orders from international airlines is a long story. So our [US-based] sister company Limco Airepair decided to conduct negotiations with large maintenance providers active in the area of component repairs.”

Dual certification was a requirement put forward by Lufthansa Technik, so the Russian company strives to comply, although it does not guarantee that the German provider will end up cooperating. The preparation process for FAA certification has already been launched, and the company expects to receive the approval in the second half of this year.

The company says it will deliver the first repaired heat exchangers to customers before the airline industry’s high summer season begins.

“We are trying to not rush it, because the priority is to get everything right,” Filippov says. “Fast and right do not go together. It is a long-term game on the field, which is not quite familiar to Engineering Holding so far. It’s the first joint venture in our history, And actually there are not so many such ventures in the Russian industry. The best examples are probably PowerJet and Hamilton Standard – Nauka.” Filippov speculates.

Engineering Holding has previously offered heat exchanger maintenace services at its subsidiary Sibir Technic at Novosibirsk Airport, but that facility basically offered just cleaning and troubleshooting opportunities. Whenever serious repairs were required, the unit had to be shipped to Limco Airepair. This will no longer be the case.

TAT Engineering is planning to repair over 1,000 heat exhange units per year for such aircraft as Airbus A320s, Boeing 737CL/NGs, and other aircraft types.

By Artyom Korenyako