S7 Technics’ aircraft painting centre completes its 100th order

S7 Technics’ Mineralnye Vody-based aircraft painting centre has reached its first significant milestone by completing the re-painting of its 100th aircraft. Some 250,000 man-hours, about 30,000 litres of paint and 60,000 litres of accompanying chemicals (solvents, paint removers, etc.), as well as more than 300,000 abrasive disks were required for the aircraft painting centre to reach the milestone.

S7 Technics’ painting team delivered its record aircraft to customer S7 Airlines after the painting process was carried out according to the Intermediate Coat Paint System Base Coat/Clear Coat MICA (base – lacquer coating) method, using PPG Aerospace painting materials. The carrier accepted the re-painted aircraft with an ‘excellent’ rating.

Leading Russian and Kazakh airlines have been regularly using S7 Technics’ Mineralnye Vody-based aircraft painting centre to repaint their aircraft. Some 59 per cent out of 100 aircraft repainted were Airbuses and 24 per cent of them Boeings.

“For us, 100 painted aircraft is a marker which illustrates a certain professionalism of the painting team, a well-coordinated crew and also indicates the levels of client confidence.” states Danil Naumenko, the S7 Technics Mineralnye Vody deputy director.

Since the creation of the S7 Technics Mineralnye Vody painting centre, its specialists have mastered all the latest technologies of using modern materials to paint aircraft, while the number of the painting team members has almost tripled from 22 employees in 2014 to 60 at the beginning of 2019.

“The increase in staff numbers and the growing experience of the painting team has allowed the painting centre to switch to a 24/7 working schedule comprising four shifts. This arrangement offers the completion of painting an aircraft within a shortened timeframe, which is a fairly important advantage for customers.

“Painter training is carried out on an uninterrupted basis, both in painting theory and aircraft structure, as well as in practice. We organise training courses several times a year at our Mineralnye Vody base, with input from the global leading specialist manufacturers of paints and lacquers, chemicals and abrasives,” Naumenko adds.

The average aircraft painting time at the S7 Technics Mineralnye Vody painting centre has decreased from 10 days in 2014 to 6-7 days for painting a simple scheme, and to 7-8 days for more complicated liveries.

“Cutting aircraft repainting turn around times has been achieved through the shrewd planning of works, by increasing the number of operational and technical staff, employing the most modern painting equipment and tools, as well as the uninterrupted contribution of our colleagues from the S7 Technics commercial and logistics department,” Naumenko reveals.

During 2018, the S7 Technics Mineralnye Vody aircraft painting centre re-delivered 30 aircraft to customers, as the painting team’s overall production output grew by more than 20 per cent over that of 2017.