Top notch

Get a sneak peek inside airBaltic’s aircraft hangar and find out more about the work of the base maintenance team, which keeps the airline’s fleet in top-notch condition by performing heavy maintenance checks, extensive scheduled inspections, and repairs on all the major systems. You can still apply at careers.airbaltic.com and join our Technical

After engine replacement, the aircraft is being prepared for a high-power engine run. The team performs borescope inspections on aircraft engines, both scheduled and unscheduled, if required. If there are any findings, the team refers to the engine maintenance manual for allowable limits. If the issue is not addressed in the manual, the team contacts the engine manufacturer, Pratt & Whitney, for the next steps.

Based on manufacturer requirements, the team inspects the landing gear. Individual components are inspected if necessary.

Academy Mechanics Program!

This aircraft is undergoing base maintenance, or, according to the maintenance programme, the so-called C check. The C check interval is three years, or at 8500 flight hours, whichever occurs first. airBaltic has also begun performing C2 checks, which have intervals of six years or 17,000 flight hours. More than 600 planned tasks are performed during the C2, including various inspections, servicing, part replacement, and modifications. The cabin is also completely disassembled, the seats and side wall panels are removed, and the carpet is replaced.

In this photo, a technician is restoring the slat track surface, which holds the slat in the front part of the wing. Slats are used during take-off and landing to create extra power at low aircraft speeds.

Here, the hydraulic power transmission unit (HPTU) is installed and a sealant is applied around the unit according to procedures. The HPTU is a device that transfers hydraulic power from one system to another.

Employees from the Structural Repair Team, whose main task is to repair and modify structural parts of the aircraft.

Gatis Ābelītis, Certified category B1 aircraft maintenance technician

Gatis Ābelītis has worked in the Technical Department at airBaltic for 16 years. When he started out as an aircraft mechanic, the airline’s fleet consisted of three types of aircraft: Fokker 50, Bombardier Dash Q400, and Boeing 737. Its first Airbus A220-300 joined the fleet at the end of 2016, and now this is the only type of aircraft airBaltic flies.

In 2014, Gatis became an authorised category B1 technician. He explains that B1 technicians are responsible for all mechanical issues; for example, they are certified to change an engine or repair the landing gear. B2 technicians, for their part, specialise in avionics and are responsible for aircraft electronics.

It takes five years to become an authorised aircraft technician who is authorised to work independently and also certify the work of mechanics and category A technicians with his or her signature. As well as passing a series of exams, a prospective B1 aircraft technician also needs to have accumulated some work experience in the field.

The work carries great responsibility. Initially, when Gatis went home from work, he used to worry about whether he had forgotten anything and whether he had done everything correctly and accurately. ‘To be an aircraft technician, one must have a strong sense of responsibility,’ he says. ‘I double-check my work – both when I’ve just finished it and again when I return to it after a while to make sure everything is right. There are also specific jobs

that require double inspections. A B1 technician checks the work of another B1 technician, and then they both sign off on the work. I mean, we’re only human and things can happen, so there’s a precise system in place to prevent any mistakes. One of the things we also learn about in the modules is the human factor, for example, how fatigue and loss of concentration can affect one’s work and how to prevent such situations.’

With airBaltic, Gatis appreciates the fact that he can work in his home country of Latvia. He also appreciates the working conditions, the remuneration, and his team of colleagues. Recently, that team has been growing significantly, and now with the establishment of the airBaltic Technical Academy, it is expected to grow even more. Gatis is very positive about the idea of the airline opening an academy: ‘It should be a success, and I hope it will attract more and more employees! I suppose that in the beginning the students and new employees might not really understand where they’ve ended up and what they’re going to be doing; some are even quite scared, and that’s understandable. But with time, as you get settled in and slowly learn everything, it all becomes familiar and understandable. But that’s true in any profession.’

Certified technicians take exams to work on a specific type of aircraft and constantly refresh their knowledge. ‘We have training courses that take place every year, others are every two years. But we’re actually updating our knowledge all the time, because aircraft keep getting modified as well, and we need to master those new elements,’ Gatis explains.

The mechanics and technicians work in shifts on a four-on-four-off schedule, that is, four days (or nights) of work followed by four days off. Alternatively, they may work two days and two

nights and then take their days off. The job also involves travel to the airBaltic hubs in Tallinn, Vilnius, Tampere, Munich, Zurich, and Düsseldorf.