As Japanese airlines begin installing the battery fix developed by Boeing for its grounded 787s, the carriers are turning their attention to flight tests and the eventual resumption of scheduled service with the aircraft. Both All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines confirm that the battery modifications on their 787s started April 22. The two rivals account for the majority of the 787s delivered so far, and they have been hardest hit by the aircraft’s grounding due to problems with its lithium-ion batteries.

A major fleet turnover in the next decade combined with even more efficient engines coming to market on the newest aircraft will combine to keep the North American engine MRO market stagnant for the next decade, TeamSAI reports. North American engine MRO will generate about $7.0 billion in work in 2013, Team SAI Senior Vice President & Principal Tom Cooper said during Aviation Week’s MRO Americas conference in Atlanta. That number will rise to $7.2 billion in 2018, and slide back to $6.9 billion in 2023. The driver?

The FAA is concerned that fatigue cracks in the flap track systems of Boeing 757s could lead to inboard flap failures and loss-of-control.

The FAA has approved Boeing’s design modifications to the 787 battery system, a move that will allow the aircraft to reenter service once the changes are made to the fleet and verified by the FAA. The approval, which will be official next week upon publication of a final directive and “instructions to operators for making the changes,” ends a three-month grounding of the widebody resulting from two incidents of smoke and fire from the 787’s lithium-ion battery systems.

What do you think? Where can we do better?

The civil aviation MRO market will be worth about $56 billion this year, with engine maintenance expenditures representing about 40%, say analysts who presented forecasts at Aviation Week’s MRO Americas Conference in Atlanta. The civil aviation fleet will grow at a 3.1% rate over the next decade despite the fact that 6,400 jets and turboprops will leave the market through 2022, according to an ICF SH&E MRO market forecast.

A recently opened facility in Moses Lake, Wash., is helping Aviation Technical Services (ATS) meet increasing demand for heavy airframe maintenance and modifications just a few years after a dip in the market forced the company to cut capacity. Following the 2008 recession, U.S. airlines saw system available seat miles (ASMs) fall 7.7% in the next two years, according to FAA data.

Supply chain management and Lean are hardly the sort of specialities one would expect to prompt an employer to plumb a prospective employee's deep psyche, but Nordam's Julian Morgan says he was subjected to thorough "personality testing" before he landed a job in supply chain management there two years ago.