Lufthansa Technical Training announced that Holger Beck now serves as COO of the company's marketing, sales and product management division. Beck previously served as COO of Lufthansa Technical Training. Karsten Schmidt became COO of Lufthansa Technical Training after working as managing director of Lufthansa Systems Aeronautics.

The narrowbody airframe MRO market continues to show signs of recovery from the worst points of the economic downturn, when even relatively young aircraft were parked to defray operational expenses and defer maintenance costs. The narrowbody airframe MRO market value grew slightly less in 2011 (which exhibited a rate of 0.6%) than it did in 2010, when market value increased by 1.4%. However, it continues the generally positive reversal from the same 12-month period in 2009–10, when the market value for narrowbody airframe MRO services contracted by 12.6%.

The Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 will dominate visits; hangars will get larger.

Engine maintenance, repair and overhaul will outpace the total commercial aviation MRO market growth this year, largely because engine events are more expensive. The main driver is “engine parts [that] continue to get marked up at a rate exceeding CPI on an annual basis, often in the 5-7% range in terms of annual increases,” says David Marcontell, TeamSAI president and COO. Material expenses represent 70-80% of total engine MRO costs, so this obviously impacts the engine aftermarket value.

A senior official at Iran's Aviation Organisation has claimed the country now enjoys the capability to conduct almost all the repair and maintenance operations on different types of passenger planes.

Precision Conversions has announced the continuation of the 757-200PCC Combi program. The 1994 Pratt & Whitney-powered Boeing 757-200 has been inducted at Flightstar Aircraft Services' facility in Jacksonville, Fla., as part of a deal for two aircraft with the option of up to four from Cargo Aircraft Management.

Correction: November's Biznet incorrectly stated that Component Control's Web store is located at aeroinv.com. Aeroinv.com, an aftermarket supplier of aircraft parts, launched its online commerce store for aftermarket parts and services and selected Component Control's ERP system for the technology backbone. Joint Ventures/Acquisitions

Pacific Royale Airways, an Indonesian start-up planning to launch operations early next year, has purchased five Fokker 50s from Ethiopian Airlines and has signed a letter-of-intent to lease an undisclosed number of Airbus A320s. The first of the Fokker 50s is due to arrive at the end of this month, with one each coming in subsequent months, says Pacific Royale CEO Sumudra Sukardi. He also says the carrier has paid a security deposit to a leasing company for some Airbus A320s, but has yet to sign the lease agreement.