For Canada’s WestJet, outsourcing deicing services has always been the preferred option. “It’s not our core business,” says Ian Anderson, the Calgary-based airline’s manager of ground icing and winter operations. “Calgary and Fort McMurray [Alberta] are our only stations where deicing and ground handling are done in-house. Calgary is our headquarters city, and at Fort McMurray, we had to step in when our contractor ceased operations there.”

When Koito Industries was found to have falsified safety testing results for some of its airline seating products, there was no great disruption for the rest of the OEMs and their customers, as some might have predicted. Only a few aircraft deliveries have been delayed because of it, says Beverly Holland, a communications specialist at Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

The terms “fuel cell” and “bladder” tanks are used interchangeably to describe a fuel tank that is completely removable from the airframe for servicing and not integral to the aircraft. While all but gone from commercial transports, they will likely see continued application in general aviation aircraft. Removable tank maintenance is frequently overlooked until a leak is spotted. Then, the only alternative may be a total replacement, according to Erich Hartwig, manager of Hartwig Aircraft Fuel Cell Repair in Hallock, Minn.