Airbus Helicopters to set up a maintenance center in Queretaro

25 July, 2018

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Aircraft manufacturer Airbus announced that it will invest about US$12.5 million to install a maintenance, repair and operations center (MRO) for helicopters in Queretaro, a state in central Mexico where the European company already has a plant for aero structures.

The announcement was made official during tour that a state delegation carried out in Europe, specifically in the Farnborough International Airshow.

At the signing of the agreement, Airbus was represented by the company's head of the region, Mesrob Karalekian and the head of Commerce in Latin America, Julien Negreo, while the governor, Francisco Dominguez Servien and the secretary of Sustainable Development, Marco Antonio Del Prete Tercero, were present on behalf of Queretaro.

Dominguez said that this center, in addition to boosting the helicopter maintenance industry in the state, will allow the Airbus plant to increase its production capacity.

Since February 2013, Airbus Helicopters, a leading manufacturer of helicopters worldwide, operates a manufacturing plant in the state of Queretaro in which it invested US$100 million.

The facilities, located in the Aerotech Industrial Park, comprise an area of 12,000 square meters for the production of door structures, as well as structural parts of the Airbus Ecureuil AS350 helicopter. In fact, the maintenance center will specialize in said helicopter family.

Currently, the plant only produces structures for emergency doors. Of a production volume of 100 doors in 2013, the capacity has increased every year until reaching 2,000 pieces currently.

Queretaro concentrates 200 of the 300 workers that Airbus Helicopters has in the country. Since 1982, the company offers from Mexico support and services to the helicopter fleet operating in the region from two facilities located at the International Airport of Mexico City and the port of Veracruz, where it also has a training center.

Last year, Airbus Helicopters recorded 409 deliveries, a slight fall on the 418 rotorcraft it handed over the previous year. The division maintained its share of 50% of the global civil and parapublic market, delivering 260 of the segment's 520 rotorcraft in 2017.

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