And by coincidence, this is from today's ATW newsbrief:
http://www.atwonline.com/news/story.html?storyID=2232
United outsources 777 heavy checks to Ameco Beijing
Wednesday August 31, 2005
United Airlines awarded a five-year contract covering all of its 777 heavy airframe maintenance to Ameco Beijing, the 60/40 joint venture between Air China and Lufthansa. Value of the deal was not supplied. More than 50 heavy maintenance visits are planned for the first three years, with as many as 80 over the contractual period. Work begins in October with five aircraft nose-to-tail, Ameco said. United's 777 fleet numbers 53 aircraft of which 52 are in service, according to Airclaims data.
As part of the transaction, Ameco will create an IT interface with United for "e-documents, human resources data, invoicing processes and other real-time data services." Ameco had revenue of RMB1.6 billion ($197.6 million) in 2004.
The figure about 52 of 53 of UA's 777s being in service is interesting -- I was under the impression that a bunch of them (in particular the ones needing D checks) were parked in the desert.