AIR ATLANTA Aero Engineering, the maintenance arm of the Icelandic-headquartered Air Atlanta Group, has formally opened its new maintenance, repair and overhaul centre at Shannon in the Republic of Ireland. The premises, which were previously owned and utilised by US logistics giant UPS, currently employs around 160 staff but Air Atlanta has already outlined plans to increase the workforce by over a third in the next two years. A total of 30 new positions will be created by the end of this year and a further 30 by the end of 2005. Although the terms of the takeover where agreed back in February 2004, the maintenance centre was officially opened on April 22 by the Irish Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan and his Icelandic counterpart Sturla Bodvarsson, Minister of Transport, Tourism and Telecommunications. Under its former owners, the centre concentrated on working on narrowbody aircraft such as the Boeing 727 and B737, but Air Atlanta plans to add B747, B757 and B767 capability over the coming months. The facility will continue to provide support to UPS on their B727 fleet for the next two years and will provide support to third party airlines alongside its core role providing maintenance services to the Air Atlanta Aviation Group.
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