1. Fixer-Uppers Supplier: Pacific Aero Tech Offering: Pacific Aero Tech's focus has included repairing and servicing aircraft windows and other transparencies since 1987. The company also boasts one of the industry's largest and most diverse inventories of aircraft windows. The company's capabilities encompass servicing wingtip and landing lenses, windshields and cabin windows on most Airbus and Boeing aircraft. www.mcnally-group.com/pacificaerotech

StandardAero waits until engines need a significant volume of maintenance at full overhaul centers, not just warranty repairs.

1. #1 and Growing Supplier: AAR

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA) are harmonizing their approaches to inspecting foreign aircraft under the European Union's Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft (SAFA) program.

MRO IT is still a patchwork at the world's top airlines.

Since he was appointed CEO of Thales earlier this year, Jean-Bernard Levy has repeatedly proclaimed that there is nothing wrong with the company's business portfolio, because all of its operational units are profitable, if only marginally. Unfortunately, this view is symptomatic of the way most European aerospace and defense (A&D) players fail to understand the value of dynamic business portfolio management.

Airbus, reasoning that the evolution of maintenance providers has rendered a manufacturer-led competency improvement effort obsolete, is disbanding its MRO Network, Aviation Week has learned. The 17 network members have heard directly from Airbus executives and received formal letters explaining the move, Airbus Senior Vice President-Customer Services and Support Tom Anderson tells Aviation Week. The network will be officially terminated in early 2014, following a contractually obligated notification period in the standard member contract.

While Boeing’s planned production rate increase to 47 Boeing 737s a month in 2017 will add pressure on its suppliers, the bigger ramifications may come on the aftermarket, an industry analyst suggests. Boeing is already set to increase 737NG rates from the current 38 per month to 42 a month next year. The widely anticipated move to 47 each month, announced last week, will put more 737NGs into service faster as Boeing ramps up a new assembly line to start delivering the 737 MAX in 2017.