Leki Aviation has signed a spares distribution, repair and overhaul agreement with Shimadzu Precision Instruments. Leki will provide extended sales and marketing for Shimadzu under this agreement and will put an exchange pool of frequently used components in Copenhagen to support the company.
Etihad Airways has put forth 125 maintenance and engineering personnel to participate in Air BP Lubricant's online training academy. This is the largest commitment to the training academy by a single airline. Etihad Airways started using Air BP Lubricant's BPTO 2197 lubricant in 2009 and it says it has reduced the number of oil degradation and coking events to zero with the program. The training tool has a suite of eight modules with different questions on topics such as specifications, servicing and storage.
Skyteam MEMBERS: Aeroflot, AeroMexico, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, Czech Airlines, Delta, Kenya Airways, KLM, Korean Air, Tarom, Vietnam Airlines DAILY FLIGHTS: 14,500 DESTINATIONS: 926 in 173 countries
Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co. (Haeco) and its subsidiary Taikoo Aircraft Engineering Co. (Taeco) have acquired a 49% of shares that SR Technics holds in Shanghai SR Aircraft Technics Co. The company has been renamed to Shanghai Taikoo Aircraft Engineering Services Co. (STA) and will provide line maintenance services at Shanghai Pudong International Airport. TAECO and the new company will work together to provide line maintenance services for customers. The company has three shareholders—Haeco, Taeco and Shanghai Foreign Aviation Service Corp.
By Dr. Stefan Weingartner, President, Commercial Maintenance, MTU Aero Engines
The commercial engine maintenance market is in a state of flux. There are new materials, new technologies and increased outsourcing by airlines. This transformation is set to continue for many years. Known market parameters are losing significance as new ones appear.
Zebra Technologies and Checkpoint Systems have entered in a non-exclusive contract and licensing agreement for RFID solutions. The agreement will bring together Zebra's active location RFID solutions with sensors made by Checkpoint's division OATSystems. The partnership will give aerospace customers increased visibility of their assets across the enterprise. Joint Ventures/Acquisitions
STS Component Solutions has appointed Armando Barroso to its team as director, business development for engines, APUs and landing gear. Barroso has more than 26 years of aerospace experience in marketing, sales, engineering, asset management and process improvement. Airframes
TP Aerospace Leasing has signed a seven-year agreement with Atlantic Airways for its full service wheels and brakes cycle flat rate program. The MRO will provide component maintenance, pool access, onsite lease inventory and a logistics program to support Atlantic Airways' fleet expansion.
MRO Prospector predicts the GE90 will only generate 157 engine overhauls this year, but less than 15% of the -115B fleet has experienced a shop visit. This compares to the GE90-94B—all of which have gone in for a visit, says Steve Shaknaitis, GE90 MRO leader. He says a typical first run is 25,000-35,000 hours, and “GE provides MRO services and support to about 70% of the GE90 fleet.”
In September, IATA projected European airlines would deliver a meek collective profit of $300 million next year, but that outlook is likely to be worse now.
American Airlines' named James Ream senior VP-operations in addition to his current role as VP-maintenance and engineering. He was president and CEO of Express Jet Airlines and before that COO of Continental Express Airlines.
Chromalloy added Daljinder Kaur to its team as sales and marketing manager of its U.K. operation in Nottingham. She previously was European business development manager at Trans World Alloys.
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.
Sabena Technics appointed Jacques Bernardi as EVP component services within the group's executive committee. He began his aviation career in 1986 with UTA and has since worked for Air France Industries, Air Liberté, EADS Sogerma Services and Goodrich Actuation Systems.
Navigating the MRO market will be easier to understand by knowing what changes are coming. Narrowbody aircraft will dominate airframe checks—especially the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737-800—and their landing gear will require the most overhauls. In the twin-aisle market, Airbus A330s and Boeing 777s will lead maintenance demand. While the GE CF34-8, CFMI CFM56-7B and IAE V2500 will propel the most growth over the next few years, the Pratt & Whitney PW100 still holds a top spot in overhauls events.
The availability of instructions for continued airworthiness (ICA) has pitted manufacturers against repair stations for years. Repair stations have pushed for greater access to ICAs, while manufacturers have carefully guarded what they deem to be proprietary information that they developed at great cost.
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.
Landing gear overhaul opportunities in 2012 will again be led by short-haul narrowbody aircraft, especially the Airbus A320 family. Data from Aviation Week's MRO Prospector shows that 1,378 landing gear overhauls were scheduled for 2011. In 2012, that total number is expected to drop slightly to 1,224. That number could dip even lower depending on the retirements of MD-80s and other legacy aircraft models.
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%.
Happy new year, and welcome to O&M's second annual MRO Almanac! Thanks to your feedback last year, we added more features full of business opportunities and technologies—in fact, most of this issue is devoted to highlighting potential prospects and technology developments that could impact your operation in the near future.
Spairliners, a JV between Air France and Lufthansa Technik, appointed Oliver Mazzucchelli as its new CEO managing director. Mazzucchelli comes to the position after serving as sales director, regional fleets for AFI KLM E&M.
Are your employees engaged? No, this isn't a question about marital status, it's a question about workplace commitment. It's about whether your employees are active, enthusiastic, contributing members of a team. If you suspect they aren't, this is an area worth your attention. Research by Gallup finds that businesses in the top quartile of their employee engagement studies experience 49% fewer safety incidents than bottom quartile organizations. In other words, by honing in on some key engagement criteria, organizations can potentially slice their incident rate in half.
Aircraft End-Of-Life Solutions has started the disassembly and dismantling of a Boeing 737-500 at Aviolanda. It is the first aircraft to be recycled by AELS at Woensdrecht Airport Business Park Aviolanda. AELS and Aviolanda will work in cooperation with Fokker Services to provide aircraft owners with an aircraft parking, maintenance and recycling solution all in one place.
