KLM Engineering & Maintenance

KLM Engineering & Maintenance provides technical support to KLM and more than 20 airlines at more than 50 airports. This technical service of KLM has one of the largest maintenance workshops in the world. It employs around 5,500 people worldwide, who know the aircraft like no one else, and appreciate the enormous forces aircraft have to endure. These specialized employees maintain and inspect the aircraft to ensure that they are ready for their next flight.

The hangar

A hangar is an enormous garage or aircraft shed. Aircraft that have completed long flights or that need replacement parts are maintained in the hangar. The largest hangar at the airport is almost 300m (985ft) wide, more than 100m (328ft) deep and around 35m (115ft) high, and can accommodate a maximum of six Boeing 747 Jumbo jets.

Maintenance

Before each flight, the aircraft is given a small maintenance service. When aircraft land at home base Schiphol, they need to be stringently checked-over within a very short time. Using a checklist and reports from the crew, the ground engineers (these are specialized aircraft mechanics) examine parts and repair or replace them if necessary. Without this check and seal of approval, the aircraft cannot take off to fly to its next destination.

Routine maintenance services are also carried out in the hangar. Each aircraft spends a day here very four or five weeks, during which time it is thoroughly checked, the interior of the aircraft is cleaned, and the exterior is examined. Sometimes, parts are repaired or replaced. It is usually smaller problems that are corrected during such a service.

In addition to these routine services, Engineering & Maintenance also carries out the more complex major routine service. This service consists of two kinds of checks: one for which the aircraft is called in for a week every 18 months, and another for which the aircraft is grounded for a longer period (about five to six weeks) and is literally checked from the inside out. Each screw, bolt and light bulb is checked, and parts are maintained. In addition, after set number of flying hours, entire jet engines are overhauled or replaced. This occurs every five or six years.