Japan Air Lines Invests in Lockheed Subsidiary
Lockheed said Monday that Japan Air Lines will be the first customer for its new aircraft maintenance center in San Bernardino and will make an equity investment of several million dollars into the Lockheed subsidiary doing the work.
Under a memorandum of understanding, JAL will take roughly a 10% equity position in the Lockheed Commercial Aircraft Center Inc., a subsidiary located at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, said Skip Bowling, a Lockheed vice president overseeing the new operation. Lockheed formed the operation earlier this year, planning to use hangars that will be vacated by the Air Force when it shuts down the base in 1994.
Bowling said the JAL work will amount to about 15% of the capacity of the new operation, which will be dedicated solely to doing structural modifications and maintenance on aging Boeing 747 jetliners. Under Federal Aviation Administration directives, aged 747s must go through extensive modifications to strengthen their structure. Those modifications take up to 90 days per aircraft, in addition to routine structural work.
JAL has the world’s largest fleet of 747s, operating 65 aircraft currently with commitments for another 69. In addition to investing in the operation, JAL will have a management role in quality control, a Lockheed spokesman said.
“They have the reputation in the industry of having one of the best quality control capabilities,” he said.
Bowling said Lockheed is initially investing about $20 million to refurbish and outfit two hangars at the military base to conduct 747 maintenance work. Lockheed expects to have 600 people working at the facility by 1992 and a total of 1,000 when all four hangars are in operation, a spokesman said.
