American Airlines – the world’s largest airline – has enjoyed a productive partnership with FSB that stretches back to the 1950s. One of the projects resulting from that partnership is creation of an overseas maintenance hangar, located at the São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo, Brazil.

The project is an expansion of the airline’s existing ramp maintenance capabilities, and will allow it to take significant advantage of the lengthy time aircraft spend on the ground between overseas flights. The twin-bay wide-body hangar houses the airline’s Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, which are the largest twin-jet aircraft in use today and consequently feature the biggest diameter turbofan engines of any commercial airliner. The new hangar provides a state-of-the-art environment in which extensive maintenance can be performed, up to and including engine and landing gear replacements.

Multiple other specialized support functions are incorporated into the hangar design; areas which will allow staff to perform maintenance and repairs on the airline’s ground service equipment and store parts for equipment and aircraft. An employee training facility is also incorporated into the design.

American Airlines officials originally approached FSB to design this hangar in order to offset an efficiency problem with maintaining their international aircraft. Specifically, aircraft would arrive in São Paulo in the morning and then sit on the tarmac all day, returning to the United States in the evening. Construction of this new hangar provides significant time and cost savings for American by streamlining routine maintenance and taking advantage of aircraft down time.