XIESA joint venture between Safran Landing Systems and China Eastern Airlines starts construction of first MRO center

On July 20, 2017, before the first meeting of the Board of Directors of the new joint venture XIESA, Vincent Mascré, Chief Executive Officer of Safran Landing Systems, and LIU Shaoyong, Chairman of China Eastern Group, jointly laid the cornerstone for a new center of excellence dedicated to landing gear maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO). Located in the airport zone of the city of Xi’an, the new MRO center will be operated by XIESA (Xi’an CEA Safran Landing Systems Services), the joint venture created on November 1, 2016 by China Eastern Airlines, one of China’s three major state-owned backbone of the air transport group, and Safran, the French aerospace and defense giant. Xi’an is already home to a maintenance hub, under development, for the China Eastern Airlines fleet. It gives both partners an ideal location for their new landing gear MRO plant, at the departure point for the historic “Silk Road”, as well as the new rail network intended to link China and Europe. The capital of Shaanxi province, Xi’an offers a large pool of top-flight skills for XIESA, which aims to provide outstanding local services.