British Airways has made a multi-million British pound investment in its engineering maintenance facility at Cardiff Airport in Wales to support its A350 aircraft.
The planned investment will expand one of three existing maintenance bays at British Airways Maintenance Cardiff (BAMC) to facilitate the larger long-haul jet. When completed, the facility will have two fully flexible bays as opposed to just one. The airline said this will allow for more complex and detailed maintenance work to be completed.
“Our Welsh engineering base is an integral part of our maintenance operation, and this investment, as part of our wider maintenance strategy, will ensure that British Airways Engineering Wales continues to play a key role for many years to come,” said British Airways chief technical officer Andy Best.
The planned work will help increase the airline's efficiency across its maintenance operations with the facility able to host more aircraft types. Currently, the base can only serve 777 and 787 aircraft types.
Best continued: “The expanded facility provides us with greater flexibility and control over our heavy maintenance activity on both the Boeing and Airbus long-haul fleets, ensuring more efficient planning and execution.”
The expansion - part of the airlines £7bn investment programme - will get underway next year and is expected to be complete the following year.