Airbus inaugurates new "AIRTAC" facility

Airbus inaugurated its new state-of-the-art AIRTAC (Airbus Technical Aircraft-on-ground Centre) support centre. The aim of the AIRTAC team is to minimise on-the-ground-time for aircraft for trouble shooting and repairs.

The new AIRTAC facilities are fitted with the most innovative technology and leading-edge solutions. These enhancements represent a multi million Euro investment that will enable Airbus to provide its customers worldwide with improved technical support and an even wider range of engineering services.

AIRTAC is a 365-day a year, 24-hour centre where specialist engineers are always available to help get aircraft operational again. On-site technical help comes from resident customer support managers based in many locations around the world, backed up by further dedicated support from teams based in Europe.

The new state-of-the-art AIRTAC centre, which works closely with the Spares Support Customer Order Desk based in Hamburg, has been designed to incorporate a growing number of engineers required to cope with the increasing workload of 2006 linked with the Airbus fleet growth and with the entry into service of the A380. As well as moving into new facilities, located with all other Airbus Customer Services, a hotline has also been created for Customer Services Flight and Ground Information Services division. This hotline is dedicated to the software products delivered by Airbus Customer Services and is part of a new support strategy for Airbus software products.

Airbus' President and CEO, Gustav Humbert, emphasised that the move into new facilities heralded a new era for customer services. He said: "Airbus is continuously improving services to customers. The new AIRTAC centre, with its wider range of services, its increased capacity, 24 hour a day and dedicated team of engineers will guarantee that our customers will receive the most efficient technical support within the shortest possible time frame."

AIRTAC was first launched in 2003 and has grown from strength to strength ever since. Feedback from customers has remained very positive over the years with a recent Customer Satisfaction Improvement Programme survey revealing satisfaction rates of more than 80 percent for AIRTAC.

With this move into a new building, AIRTAC will indeed provide an increased capacity, greater efficiency and extended customer services to all Airbus customers, helping them keep the cost of owning and operating Airbus aircraft to a minimum.

Headquartered in Toulouse, Airbus is an EADS joint company with BAE Systems.

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