Turkish Technik has signed an agreement with Air Bishkek for wheels and tire services on carbon brake units for the carrier's Airbus A320 fleet. Turkish Technik also overhauled one set of Airbus A320 landing gear for the airline. Turkish Technik supported Air Bishkek with its spare units during these shop visits.
Emirates-CAE Flight Training announced that flydubai will be the launch customer for its new training center for pilots and maintenance technicians, set to open in the third quarter at Dubai's Silicon Oasis commercial park. Flydubai has signed a multi-year exclusive training services agreement with the center for next-generation Boeing 737 training. The facility will include four full-flight simulator bays, with plans to expand to up to 10 bays. The simulators will replicate the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft families.
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.
Rolls-Royce Singapore established a regional training center and a research center next to its engine assembly plant at Singapore's Seletar Aerospace Park. This research center is focused on “life management planning,” mostly non-destructive testing of engine parts in service with airline operators. The purpose is to ascertain if the engine parts and materials are performing as intended. Predicting the future wear and tear of engine parts and the related maintenance costs is vital if Rolls-Royce is to profit from its power-by-the-hour maintenance programs.
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.
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
For years, the supply chain was looked upon as a necessary evil. Manufacturing, warehousing and transportation were part of the cost of doing business, not what drove a company forward. That is no longer the case. Every organization in every industry, including the aviation aftermarket, is challenged to do whatever it is they do better, faster and cheaper. Supply chains are no longer just overhead—the best companies view them as a competitive advantage.
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.
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%.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
