Etihad and Airberlin align maintenance

Abu Dhabi: Etihad Airways has opened a line maintenance base at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, the UAE flag carrier’s seventh outside Abu Dhabi and its first in the United States.

The new facility is equipped with the latest technology and will perform all scheduled and non-scheduled line maintenance for Etihad Airways’ daily Boeing 777 aircraft flying into Chicago from the UAE capital. In addition, and as a result of growing synergies between partners, the new base will also provide line maintenance services for airberlin’s new Airbus A330-operated Chicago flights.

Airberlin begins its three weekly nonstop Berlin-Chicago services on March 23, rising to five a week in summer 2013. The maintenance services to be performed in Chicago will include transit, daily and weekly checks, scheduled engineering services, and fault repairs for aircraft systems and cabin issues. In addition to extending line maintenance services to airberlin, Etihad Airways will also offer full technical handling for at least one other carrier. Etihad Airways’ existing line maintenance facilities are in Dublin, Lahore, London-Heathrow, Manchester, Melbourne and Sydney.