Virgin Atlantic Airways has awarded Aeropeople Engineering Services a three-year contract to manage cabin interior maintenance, repair and refurbishment across its global fleet.

The multi-million pound contract extends a relationship between the airline and Aeropeople Engineering Services’ parent company Aeropeople, in which the latter has provided recruitment services to Virgin for some 15 years.

Aeropeople said it would establish a team of around 80 people based at London Heathrow Airport.

It will work in partnership with interiors service provider Cabinair, part of the SA Group, to provide an end to end service for the airline across its 787 and A330/A350 aircraft.

Aeropeople will establish a line maintenance operation at Heathrow to support front line cabin interior maintenance as well as establishing a deeper scheduled maintenance and refurbishment operation in the Virgin hangar at the airport.

Subject to unplanned Covid-19 disruption, work will begin on the first aircraft week commencing 11 January 2021.

Aeropeople’s managing director Ian Peart said: “This is probably the biggest single deal that Aeropeople has ever won and is a great demonstration of our resilience during what has been a very challenging period for the sector.

“We have been and now look forward to extending that partnership in what is genuinely a ground-breaking deal that enables us to provide our customer with a turnkey solution that will minimise aircraft downtime whilst driving efficiency and value across all elements of the supply chain.

“I believe that it was Aeropeople’s ability, through our existing engineering expertise and aircraft approvals along with our collaboration with Cabinair, to provide Virgin with a one-stop-shop solution that differentiated our bid, making it a truly compelling and cost effective proposition at a time when everyone in our industry is looking for more from its suppliers.”

Virgin Atlantic’s vice president engineering & maintenance Phil Wardlaw commented: “We have worked with [Aeropeople] for many years and know they are a professional and trusted supplier.

“The Virgin Atlantic cabin experience is so important to us and our customers so it was essential that we partnered with a supplier that can help us maintain our world-leading cabin and onboard customer experience.”