TAP Nearly Finished Rebranding VEM Maintenance
By Lee Ann Tegtmeier
DALLAS--TAP Maintenance & Engineering is close to finishing branding VEM Maintenance & Engineering to TAP. The Brazilian maintenance unit's name was legally changed in February, and since then, the facility's signage has been switched, ground vehicles should don TAP's logo by today, and employee uniforms should all feature the TAP logo by May 10, according to Jorge Sobral, a member of the executive board for TAP Maintenance & Engineering.
Beyond these visual signs, Sobral said the Portuguese and Brazilian MRO units "now only have one commercial direction," and the facilities are very coordinated.
Maintenance on Boeing aircraft will remain in Brazil, and Airbus MRO will go where capacity is available and where the customer wants it to be, he said. However, "some component maintenance will only be available in Lisbon, and others will only still be available in Brazil," he added.
TAP became the sole shareholder in VEM in April 2007. It took controlling interest of the MRO from Varig in August 2006.
