10. Returning MAX To Service Requires Maintenance Changes
Credit: November 2020
Most of the changes Boeing is making to the 737 MAX family in the wake of two fatal accidents and a 19-month grounding affect flight operations, but the fleet’s return will bring some changes to maintenance programs as well.
If the ongoing corona-crisis does effect a structural shift in the air transport market, both the production and aftermarket sectors will have to adjust.
Much has been made of aviation’s ability to weather previous external shocks such as 9/11, SARS and the financial crash, but the present upheaval is likely to outdo all others in its severity, and there is a good chance we won’t see demand bounce back as quickly as in the past.
As the coronavirus spreads and airlines ground more aircraft, many will use the opportunity to conduct maintenance and refurbishment work.
The extent to which this provides a boost to MRO revenues, at least in the short term, is difficult to quantify, and will depend on the type of work being conducted and the capacity available.
7. Commercial Aftermarket Braces For Sharp Decline, Slow Recovery
Credit: March 2020
Nothing scares the aftermarket world more than ramps packed with parked aircraft, since idle airframes and engines will not need much service. A close second: ramps with some spare aircraft that operators can tap when equipment they are using needs work, pushing off costly repairs and overhauls in the process.
Suffice it to say the global maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) community should brace for many unsettling days ahead.
6. Retirement Uptick Will Restock Used Engine Parts
Credit: February 2020
After three consecutive years of retirements that came in below its forecasted totals and a net figure that fell to about 500 annually Oliver Wyman says preliminary data for 2019 shows net removals jumped in 2019, surpassing 700 aircraft.
Figuring out how to make passengers comfortable boarding aircraft again, without having to block off middle seats indefinitely, is a problem the industry needs to solve sooner rather than later.
3. Could COVID-19 Reshape The Mid-Life Aircraft Market?
Credit: March 2020
Air New Zealand’s chief executive has become the latest leader to predict that his airline will emerge from the corona-crisis as a smaller operation.
Greg Foran echoed sentiments expressed byLufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr a day earlier, with the ANZ chief predicting that a more health-conscious public would take time to rebuild trust in flying and travel.