Qantas Airways plans to close its Sydney heavy maintenance operations on May 31 and transfer the Boeing 747 work to its Avalon facilities. The carrier already had to move many engineering and maintenance functions out of Sydney due to space constraints. Qantas is developing A380 base maintenance facilities in Sydney, "but it is unlikely heavy maintenance will be undertaken in Australia," said a company statement. Qantas still has about 2,900 people employed in engineering in Sydney.
Turbine Engine Service Group appointed Arthur Paine sales manager for Mexico, the Caribbean and south America. He previously sold PT6 services for Wood Group Turbopower.
New Integrated Merlin Operational Support (IMOS) measures for U.K. MoD's AgustaWestland EH101 helicopters will increase their availability to the Royal Navy and RAF, while saving around £1bn ($1.735 billion) in support costs during their 25-year application, said Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram. Announcing award of an initial £450 million ($780 million) five-year IMOS contract to AgustaWestland in Yeovil, as prime contractor, partnered with Lockheed Martin, Ingram said the MoD had hitherto operated discrete support systems for naval and RAF Merlins.
Air France Industries received a five-year contract from South African Technical for component support of its six A340-200s, along with a maintenance base kit.
Landmark Aviation announced that Ron Soret switched from vice president of quality to vice president of operations for its Associated Air Center business. Landmark also announced Harvey Ticlo was promoted to senior vice president of MRO operations at its facility in Los Angeles, and David Lamb will assume Ticlo's previous job as vice president and general manager of the facility.
Pemco Aviation promoted Randall Shealy to senior vice president and CFO to succeed John Lee, who has retired from the company. Shealy joined Pemco in December 2004 as vice president of finance. Pemco also named Chris Warden director of internal audit.
May 16-17 MRO Military Europe, Berlin Sept. 19-21 MRO Asia, Xiamen, China Oct. 24-26 MRO Europe, Amsterdam Nov. 13-15 A&D Programs, Phoenix Contacts Registration Info: Anita Joyce Wright, registration producer, 800-240-7645 in U.S. only or 212-904-6344; fax 212-904-3334
Japan Airlines signed up for Boeing's Integrated Material Management program, which makes Boeing responsible for purchasing, inventory management and logistics for JAL's expendable parts.
Not only is the sector heating up due to the shear number of engines coming due for overhaul, but Pratt & Whitney's precedent-setting announcement in February that it plans not only to make PMA parts for the CFM56-3, but that 19 of those parts will be of the heretofore un-PMA'd life-limited variety set the industry abuzz. "It's going to liven up the marketplace a little," joked David Stewart, co-founder of consulting firm AeroStrategy.
Safety investigators in Canada and the U.S. in late March called for immediate inspections of certain Airbus A300-600 and A310 rudders following service information from the manufacturer warning of damage caused by hydraulic fuel leaks. While Airbus in all-operators telexes (AOTs) said the checks -- both for hydraulic fluid and for the structure itself -- should be done within six months or 500 cycles, the safety boards of both countries urged regulators to tighten the compliance schedule significantly.
COVER STORY: MRO Market Up Modestly As Efficiencies Take Hold Five- and 10-year forecasts show nearly 5 percent annual growth driven by engine sector. Airline Fleet Rises, 46 U.S. Traffic Grows Slowly, 50 Departments From the Editor 6 Biznet 11 Interview 16 K.S. Lee, Korean Airlines Safety & Regulatory News Washington in Action 23 Human Factors 28 International Safety & Regulatory Briefs 30
ADVERTISING SALES OFFICES: NORTH AMERICA -- SALES DIRECTOR Matt Holdreith, Phone: 212-904-2628; Fax: 212-904-3993 NATIONAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, EAST Katie Taplett, Phone: 202-383-2335; Fax: 202-383-2323 NATIONAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, WEST Bill Hux, Phone: 213-480-5202; Fax: 213-480-5249 REGIONAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, NORTHEAST Gerry Lawrence, Phone: 781-860-6452; Fax: 781-860-6426 NORTHEAST, MID-ATLANTIC AND EASTERN CANADA
In January, U.S. Navy Systems Command awarded DynCorp International in Irving, Texas, a $13.7 million FMS contract to provide maintenance and support services for Kuwaiti Air Force Boeing F/A-18s. The contract is for one year, plus four option years, for a five-year potential value approaching $64 million. DynCorp has held the KAF contract since 1997.
British Airways plans to upgrade its Total Entertainment System with Rockwell Collins' audio video on demand. The upgrade should be done by December 2007.
The O&M Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Aviation Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul will be presented on April 25 in Phoenix. Two MRO luminaries also will receive O&M Lifetime Achievement Awards. This year, EM&M Forum in conjunction with ATA will present its Nuts 'n Bolts awards at the same dinner. The O&M Awards honor managers or executives who have improved, or contributed significantly to the improvement of, the efficiency, profitability, reliability and/or safety of their company's MRO operation or of aviation MRO generally.
Cruising through its sixth year of business, JetBlue faces challenges familiar to many carriers, such as cracking the pricing puzzle to achieve premium yields at oil prices hovering around the $60 dollar a barrel, but there's also an upside to its operations -- a 20 percent increase in C check intervals on its Airbus A320s should help the carrier stave off a rise in its maintenance costs. JetBlue won FAA approval in late December to extend C check intervals from 5,000 hours or 15 months to a flat 6,000 hours.
dba signed a three-year contract with SR Technics to the support the Honeywell APUs fitted to its Boeing 737 fleet. Support will be provided by SR Technics Dublin, which recently underwent a ?3m upgrade to its APU service centre and test cell.
