Innotech-Execaire Aviation Group appointed Andrew P. Pearce regional director of aircraft sales for the U.K., Europe and the Middle East, based in London.
FL Technics signed a three-year agreement with Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) under which UIA will provide base maintenance services to FL Technics customers at its Borispol airport technical center in Kiev. FL Technics CEO Jonas Butautis says FL Technics is considering building a third hangar for aircraft maintenance, potentially in Vilnius, Lithuania; Chisinau, Moldova; at one of Moscow airports; or at a regional airport in Poland.
The landing gear overhaul business is about to surge as fleets delivered within the century's first decade reach the first removals of their landing gear for major servicing. In tandem, new aircraft delivered during the 1990s are about to hit their second removal period.
Belac shipped its 50,000th parts manufacturer approval high-pressure turbine blade in April to a customer in Europe. The joint venture of Chromalloy, Lufthansa and United Airlines began manufacturing and shipping the components in 2002.
Fokker Services and Lufthansa Technik in May agreed to provide joint support for Boeing, Airbus and Bombardier components, including a range of pneumatic, hydraulics and avionics components, for the next five years. A separate purchase agreement covers the delivery of PMA piece parts for use in Lufthansa Technik repairs.
Dayton-Granger amended STC to install winglet and horizontal stabilizer end cap lightning protection kits on Bombardier regional jet series 100, 400, 440, 700, 702, 705, 900 and 1000, STC ST02241NY
Packaging Systems International specializes in the distribution of chemicals, sealants, adhesives and coatings. It packages epoxy, urethane, polysulfide and silicone chemistry materials to customers' specific quantity requirements. Packaging Systems International has the capability to package materials in barrier and injection kits, dual-cartridge kits and Bipacks (bags of two blendable sealant materials separated by a removable clip before use).
Regent Seating Division offers complete overhaul and refurbishment of aircraft seats with its line of PMA parts for arm caps, tray tables and seat belts. It can install new fabric and leather seat cushions and dress covers as well as plan complete cabin reconfigurations. Regent is headquartered in Valencia, Calif., with a 90,000-sq.-ft. facility, and it has repair stations around the world. www.regentaerospace.com
AC Tech added Martin Barila as VP operations at its Garden Grove, Calif., headquarters. Barila joins the aerospace sealant and specialty chemical product provider from Air Industries Co.
Only three MROs—ST Aerospace, the Haeco group and Sabena technics—increased their total airframe maintenance man-hours in this year's Top 10 airframe MRO survey (pg. 22), compared to the last biennial one published in June 2009. The Haeco group (comprising Haeco, Staeco and Taeco for our survey) topped the gains with about 600,000 additional man-hours. On the flip side, many subtracted 500,000 airframe maintenance man-hours last year, with a few dropping more than 1 million man-hours, which I don't think you can categorize as simply a “shift.”
Pratt & Whitney and PAS Technologies signed a long-term agreement making PAS Technologies a designated service provider for select repairs on Pratt & Whitney PW2000 and PW4000 and IAE V2500 engine families at its Hillsboro, Ohio, and Kansas City, Mo., facilities.
SR Technics landed its first long-term contract in the Philippines: It will maintain 18 Cebu Pacific CFM56-5B engines in Zurich under a 10-year, $52 million deal. Avionics/IFE
Commsoft won a deal to provide its Open Aviation Strategic Engineering System (Oases) to Latvia's SmartLynx Airlines under a five-year, 15-concurrent user deal. SmartLynx planned to go live with Oases to manage its eight Airbus A320s in May.
Dean Baldwin Painting plans to nearly double in size with a new location north of Indianapolis. It is investing around $10.5 million to transform a hangar complex at Grissom Aeroplex in Peru, Ind., into a state-of-the-art paint facility. When the project is complete, the site will have two widebody and two narrowbody bays. Operations should launch at the new site in December.
A J Walter acquired a site close to Gatwick Airport in the U.K., where it plans to develop a global headquarters and logistics center. It plans to open the new campus in fall 2012.
Mxi Technologies' Maintenix software went live at LAN Airlines in April. Maintenix replaced LAN'an's legacy VISaer system and more than 20 internal sub-systems.
LONDON—The European Aviation Safety Agency EASA is considering an innovative proposal that would allow commercial operators to outsource their continuous airworthiness management organization (CAMO) functions, enabling them to adopt, for example, Boeing's Goldcare maintenance model for Boeing 787 and 737NG operators. Boeing, which has CAMO approval, could manage its European-based 787 fleet from a central organization that would provide operators with airworthy 787s. Boeing staff would run the CAMO, while operators would use aircraft from a pool.
Pratt & Whitney formally launched its PureSolution service program for the PurePower engine family. (For more information, see O&M, April 2011, pg. 66.)
Airinmar appointed Tom Wilson COO and member of its board of directors. Wilson most recently was VP component solutions and business development at Aveos Fleet Performance.
MEMPHIS—The annual Avionics Maintenance Conference provides a forum for operators to air their equipment woes to the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), but April's gathering made for an especially heated environment. The topic of most contention was intellectual property, a concept that generates much confusion. Unhappy operators accused some avionics suppliers of keeping important maintenance information from them and citing intellectual property ownership as an excuse.
American Airlines offers seat refurbishment services at its Tulsa, Okla., and Fort Worth, Texas, maintenance bases. It services seats that equip all of the aircraft types that American operates as part of heavy checks: Boeing 737s, 777s and MD-80s. American Airlines performs almost all seat work in-house. Its capabilities include upholstery replacement, deep cleaning and armrest replacement. www.aa-mro.com
Alaska Airlines launched a new inflight entertainment option in April: touchscreen, handheld digEplayer devices that let passengers access new-release movies, television programs, the National Football League network, ReelzChannel Hollywood programming and games. Customers also can pay a fee to use the device to connect to Alaska's Gogo inflight internet. Alaska debuted the system, which is lighter than its predecessor, in 2003. It is available on most flights longer than 3 hr.
