Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) board of directors, chaired by Harel Locker, has approved a structural transformation as proposed by President and CEO Joseph Weiss.

The transformation includes the establishment of a single aviation unit for all of IAI's aviation businesses. Currently, the structure of IAI is built around six independent groups, each with turnover of several hundreds of millions of dollars.

The new unit, which will have annual sales in excess of $1bn, will focus on four business lines: aircraft development and manufacturing; development and production of aviation assemblies; aircraft conversion and enhancement; and aircraft maintenance. Yossi Melamed, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Bedek Aviation Group, has been named General Manager of the new unit.

The new structure will be organized according to business lines. Under the new structure, IAI believes it will be better positioned to reinforce existing synergies between its various operations. The company says that the move, which follows a significant increase in the order backlog last year, will also lead to significant operational streamlining, including withdrawal from existing unprofitable lines of business.