Vallair is opening a new maintenance hangar at Marcel Dassault Airport in Châteauroux, France.

The 8,500sq m facility will be dedicated to the support of widebody Airbus and Boeing aircraft. It can accommodate up to five A321 size aircraft simultaneously, or a combination of A330/A340s and A321s.

The hangar is available from the first quarter of 2022, the company said.

“This is a natural expansion for us,” said Vallair’s head of commercial and marketing Malcolm Chandler. “Our initial focus will be the Airbus A330 maintenance capabilities with a view to adding A340/A350s, and possibly 777s, at a later stage.

“Vallair will then be able to offer the full range of maintenance capabilities including NDT, lease transitions, LOPA change and cabin refurbishment, which will be offered alongside our current aerostructure services. Our existing composite facility in Châteauroux already offers repairs for critical parts such as nacelles, fan cowls, thrust reversers and flying control surfaces enabling our customers to benefit from cost effective solutions with quick turnaround times.”

Vallair’s existing MRO facility in Montpellier, France, already supports operators and lessors providing maintenance, modifications, reconfigurations, and painting for narrowbody aircraft as well as parking and storage.

“With such a comprehensive background in MRO, we definitely welcome the opportunity of being able to extend our capabilities into the widebody market,” said Chandler.

“The new Châteauroux facility will initially service Airbus aircraft but is large and flexible enough to accommodate other widebodies (including the A350 and A380) which will enable us to extend our parking and storage services to the widebody market as well. There is a rich aviation heritage within the Centre Val de Loire region in the heart of France, and we have assembled an experienced team able to make the most of the exceptional expertise available. This is a new chapter for Vallair and we look forward to the future for Châteauroux.”