=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/c/a/2005/08/31/BUGCOEFNNK= 1.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, August 31, 2005 (SF Chronicle) China to work on United jets/Airline to outsource heavy maintenance of 54 B= oeing-777s David Armstrong, Chronicle Staff Writer United Airlines said Tuesday that it will outsource heavy maintenance wo= rk on the 54 Boeing- 777 aircraft in its fleet to China. The work has been contracted out to a domestic vendor, Triad Internation= al Maintenance Corp. of Greensboro, N.C., in recent years. Under a new contract, United will buy heavy maintenance services for its 777s from Ameco Beijing, a joint venture of Lufthansa Tecknik, a unit of German carrier Lufthansa Airlines; and Air China, a Chinese carrier with which United has a code-share arrangement on flights between the United States and China and within China. The dollar value of the contract between United and Ameco Beijing, which will do the heavy maintenance at its facility in Beijing, was not disclosed. United flies 777s chiefly as a long-haul aircraft on transcontinental routes across the United States and international routes to Asia and Europe, said spokesman Jeff Green. Some flights between Northern California and Hawaii also use the "triple- 7," as the aircraft is known in aviation circles. In addition to the 777s, United, the dominant carrier at San Francisco International Airport, operates a variety of other aircraft in its fleet, which totals 455 planes. The fleet continues to be maintained by a combination of United's staff mechanics and contractors elsewhere in this country. United portrayed the move as another stage of its expansion in China, which has the fastest-growing aviation market in the Asia Pacific region. United flies nonstop between SFO and Beijing and SFO and Shanghai and runs 28 weekly flights between the two countries -- the most of any U.S. carrier. Reorganizing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since December 2002, United has pared billions in annual operating costs. Outsourcing expensive operations such as heavy maintenance, which entails taking an airplane apart, inspecting and tweaking and reassembling it, makes sense for United because the work is less costly in China than in this country. The deal with Ameco Beijing, founded in 1989, was announced in Beijing by Glenn Tilton, chief executive officer of UAL Corp., United's parent company. "Ameco has a reputation for high-quality work and cost-efficiency," Tilt= on said Tuesday in his weekly telephone message to UAL employees. "We are confident that they will be a strong partner for United, just as Air China has been a strong partner for us over the years." Nevertheless, outsourcing work to overseas vendors is controversial in t= he airline business, as it is in other hard-pressed U.S. industries. United's largest maintenance base in its worldwide network is at SFO, where it employs 5,000 workers. The SFO hub specializes in engines, landing gear, line maintenance and avionics electronic systems. The new China deal does not change that. United mechanics agreed to allow outsourcing of heavy maintenance on Boeing 777s and jumbo 747s to overseas vendors as part of a recent agreement with the money-losing airline, said Terry O'Rourke, spokesman for Local 9 of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association in San Bruno. Thus, the movement of some maintenance work to China, while worrisome to U.S. workers, "does not come as a surprise," he said. E-mail David Armstrong at davidarmstrong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --------------= -------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2005 SF Chronicle