When it comes to technical purchasing, airlines across the spectrum are increasingly insisting upon greater flexibility in the fine print of maintenance support contracts. “Today, the customer has gotten more sophisticated when negotiating maintenance contracts,” says Brian Ovington, principal marketing manager of aviation services for GE Aviation. “There is a lot more creativity in terms of the payment structures and the length of the agreements with respect to aircraft entry and exit of the program, and other terms.”
Two years after it announced an intention to acquire AirTran Airways, Southwest Airlines remains on track to integrate the smaller carrier into its system by 2015. Dallas-headquartered Southwest closed on the AirTran purchase in May 2011 and was granted a single operating certificate for the two airlines in March.
