MEDIA RELEASE
26th January 2010
DASH 8 UP FOR MAJOR MAINTENANCE
The new Dash8 operation, although going well since 07 December 2009, will be leaving for PNG to undergo a major Maintenance check called a “C-Check”.
This C-Check is due every several thousand hours and whilst Solomon Airlines indicates it’s been here only for a short while, it confirmed that Airlines PNG has the planning of Maintenance control of this P2 registered aircraft and they have slotted the Solomon Airlines’ Dash8 registered P2-MCQ for a Heavy Maintenance slot from mid to late February.
“Normally”, the airline said, “such heavy maintenance can take up to six (6) weeks so we have devised and reviewed our current schedule to cater for two Twin Otters and the Islander aircraft during this period of Maintenance as Airlines PNG indicated it cannot replace this aircraft with another in its fleet due to the increased workload driven by the LNG project and other mining contracts now allocated to Airlines PNG.”
The spokesperson further indicated that “luckily for us, it’s usually one of our quietest periods of the year and we believe that we are able to handle the planned maintenance without too much fuss and trust that no ‘unplanned ‘ maintenance will happen to our current fleet whilst the Dash8 is away.”
Solomon Airlines confirmed that during the period of Maintenance of the Dash8, it will not be paying the fees under the contract as ‘there will be no flying involved and this will help during our off-peak period noted.” The airline said.
Finally, the spokesman indicated, “an interim schedule will be published and available from our offices in the next few days and asks all its travelling clients to check to ensure times/flights etc are confirmed under the Interim schedule”.
The Interim schedule is expected to be effective from 14th February until 28th March at the latest and returns in time for our high Easter break season.
