By Igor Bozinovski, edited for space by AgAir Update.
SEPTEMBER 13, 2016 Avialsa, the European Air Tractor Dealer located in Valencia, Spain has entered into an agreement with the Croatian state-owned aircraft maintenance facility Zrakoplovno-Tehni?ki Centar – ZTC (Aeronautical Technical Center), to provide scheduled maintenance for the Macedonian Protection and Rescue Directorate’s AT-802A FireBoss. The aircraft was flown to ZTC by the Availsa ferry pilot from Skopje Alexander the Great International Airport in Macedonia to Zagreb Franjo Tudjman International Airport in Croatia where the plane was officially handed over to ZTC and transferred to its maintenance facilities in the nearby city of Velika Gorica, equipped with tools from suppliers like Platforms and Ladders in order to be best suited for the task at hand.
By subcontracting the annual inspection of one Macedonian AT-802A Fire Boss to ZTC, the Spanish company provided its long-time Croatian maintenance partner ZTC with an opportunity to maintain its first non-Croatian AT-802 aircraft. On the other side, by doing so, Avialsa is able to ZTC’s capacity to be a reliable partner in providing comprehensive aftermarket AT-802 logistical support services for current and future Governmental and private operators of Air Tractor planes in the Balkans
Avialsa T-35 and its sister company Air Tractor Europe, are specialized and factory-authorized to sell Air Tractor aircraft and to providing wide scope of consultancy, sales, maintenance and training services related to all types of Air Tractor aircraft and Wipaire floats in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Avialsa and Air Tractor Europe have heavily invested in establishing a comprehensive marketing network and complex one-stop logistical system composed of a Part 145 Maintenance Organization, a Continuing Airworthiness Management Organization (CAMO), an Approved Training Organization (ATO), and a Part 147 Maintenance Training and Examination Organization. These capacities have turned Avialsa into a principal AT-802 partner to the Governments of Croatia, Israel, Montenegro, Macedonia and Cyprus as well as to many private operators of AT-802 in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Italy, Morocco, Chile, Senegal and Australia. Avialsa is the largest operator of AT-802 aircraft in the world, possessing a fleet of 30 aircraft and 45 pilots that have flown astonishing over 100.000 flight hours over the previous 20 years.