Gulf Air has contracted maintenance of the APS5000 auxiliary power units (APU) on the airline’s 10 new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft to AFI KLM E&M. His Majesty King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa King of Bahrain visited France and signed the contract during a ceremony organized by the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) under the patronage of the MEDEF,France’s main organization of business owners.
The long-term contract includes a guarantee covering APU replacement. The repair services will be provided by AFI KLM E&M subsidiary EPCOR. AFI KLM E&M’s predictive maintenance solution, PROGNOS for APU which is designed, built and marketed by EPCOR, was launched in September 2017 and uses Big Data technology to monitor the performance of APUs and predict faults, ultimately helping to rationalize maintenance work and avoid shop visits and excess costs for client airlines, AFI KLM E&M says.
PROGNOS for APU is now monitoring more than 600 APUs around the world, including those of Gulf Air’s 787.
The collaboration between these two companies started several years ago with the repair of Gulf Air’s CFM56 engines and the airline currently uses AFI KLM E&M services for component support on its existing fleet of A320s and A330s, and those of its Dubai-based AMES subsidiary for nacelle and radome repairs. EPCOR has also provided APU support for the Bahraini carrier’s Airbus A330s for a number of years.
“EPCOR’s proven TAT and service quality performance observed in the framework of our A330 APU contract convinced us to extend our partnership to this new type of APU and we are pleased to continue our relationship with them as we prepare to welcome new aircraft into our fleet,” says Krešimir Kucko, Gulf Air CEO.