TAM Airlines’ Technological Centre, the MRO business unit (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul), has been certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to perform maintenance operations on aircraft registered in the United States. With the FAA’s seal of approval, TAM is able to strengthen the maintenance, repair and overhaul services it offers to other leading carriers.

TAM is the only Brazilian aviation company certified by the FAA, EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) and ANAC (Agencia Nacional de Aviacao Civil - Brazilian Civil Aviation Agency).

"We are now certified by the world's foremost aeronautical authorities which is the recognition of the quality of our service. With these endorsements we can strengthen our service offerings to third parties," says Ruy Amparo, Vice President of MRO.

The FAA’s FAR 145 certification allows TAM to perform all the major programmed maintenance operations (C and D checks), in addition to the revision of different aeronautical components. The process of obtaining FAA certification took 14 months and was preceded by extensive audits, in which all the technical and quality procedures of TAM’s Technological Centre were thoroughly checked and verified by the FAA.

TAM’s Technological Centre has already been approved by both ANAC and EASA to carry out all major programmed maintenance operations on Airbus A318/A319/A320/A321 and A330 aircraft, both in TAM’s own fleet and on third party aircraft. The centre is also certified for the maintenance of components of Boeing aircraft that are incorporated into the airline’s fleet, and it is in the final process of certification for Boeing 767 aircraft. The MRO business unit is also approved to perform major programmed maintenance on Fokker-100 aircraft.

In August TAM was certified by the DGAC (Direccion General de Aeronautica Civil), the official Chilean aviation authority, to service the Airbus A318 and their components for aircraft registered in Chile. The certification followed the approval of ANAC for TAM to perform maintenance on the Airbus A318. It was the unit's first approval for an aircraft model that is not a part of the TAM fleet. TAM is also certified by the Chilean authorities to perform maintenance operations on A319, A320 and A321 aircraft.

Since January 2007 TAM has held IOSA certification. The IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) programme is an internationally recognised and accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline. IOSA's quality principles are designed to conduct audits in a standardised manner. The audit involves more than 950 requirements in eight operational areas of a single airline company, including engineering and maintenance of aircraft.

TAM’s Technological Centre is located in the city of Sao Carlos, in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo, and covers an area of 4.6 million square meters. In addition to maintenance hangars, the facility houses workshops where more than 3,000 aeronautical components can be examined and tested.