The Irish Taoiseach witnesses signing of SAMA maintenance contract with SR Technics, Ireland

This is Sama's second contract with SR Technics, a world class engineering and maintenance company that maintains over 750 aircraft worldwide and has ISO 9001 certification.

In June 2006 Sama signed a SAR453 million contract with SR Technics for aircraft maintenance.

Mike Williams, Director of Engineering and Maintenance at Sama said, "We are delighted to be deepening our relationship with SR Technics. This is another major contract that takes us towards completing our engineering and maintenance set up in readiness for launch."

Commenting on the relationship, Declan O'Shea, Executive Vise President of Sales & Marketing of SR Technics said, "Sama is working hard to establish a highly professional and expert engineering and maintenance set up in Saudi Arabia. SR Technics is very pleased to have been selected to help achieve that goal."

The signing was witnessed by the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern who visited Sama to applaud their work in setting up a low fares airline and support SR Technics which has its main APU facility in Ireland.

"It's great to see a new low fare airline taking to the skies here in Saudi Arabia," said Bertie Ahern.

"In Ireland we're very proud of Ryanair's status as the number one low fare airline in Europe and I welcome accelerated Irish investment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It gives me great pleasure to support SR Technics, Ireland in this historic agreement with Sama."