The European Union’s latest aviation blacklist shows improvements at EgyptAir, Yemenia, TAAG and in the Ukraine. But oversight problems in Djibouti and the Congo, as well as Sao Tome and Principe off the West Coast of Africa, led to an all-out ban on airlines from those countries. Yemenia was of particular note in the latest blacklist, since the prior edition was issued just days after the crash of IY626, an Airbus A310 approaching Comoros.
GE Aviation and Emirates signed a memorandum of understanding for GE90 engine maintenance, under which Emirates will perform engine module and piece-part breakdown on GE90-115B engines and GE90-115B engine testing at its engine test facility near Dubai International Airport. GE provide Emirates with material and manpower support.
Rolls-Royce won a $720-million Trent 700 order for 10 Virgin Atlantic Airbus A330 aircraft, covered by a long-term TotalCare service support agreement. Trent 700 engines will power six A330s ordered by Virgin Atlantic and four provided by aircraft leasing company AerCap, increasing the total number of AerCap Rolls-Royce powered A330 aircraft to 23. Aircraft deliveries are slated to start in 2011.
Despite the economic downturn, the use of outside chemical management services is holding steady in the aerospace and aviation sectors as more companies seek to outsource not only inventory control but data reporting, disposal, purchasing and other costly tasks.
Happy new year! While economic and forecast pundits don’t believe 2010 will see an exuberant rebound, the aviation aftermarket seems poised for at least minimal growth. (But don’t expect the marketplace to pick up as quickly as it has following the last few economic downturns.) I gleaned several themes for increasing aftermarket revenue from AVIATION WEEK’s MRO Asia Conference in Hong Kong last month. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but hopefully it will germinate new ideas for your business.
Lufthansa Technik took over component support for Air Berlin Group's Boeing 737s, Airbus A320 and A330 family aircraft, and Bombardier Q400s. The agreement covers on-site service at the carrier's Berlin and Düsseldorf hubs, access to Lufthansa Technik's central material warehouses and repair services in Hamburg and Frankfurt, and an AOG global express for about 2,000 different types of electronic, hydraulic and pneumatic components. Air Berlin also transferred a large part of its spare parts inventory to Lufthansa Technik. Joint Ventures/Acquisitions
French accident investigation bureau BEA planned in mid-December to release its second interim report on the loss of Air France Flight 447. Before releasing the latest findings, BEA officials indicated they had seen no information leading them to alter their main determination that the airplane did not break apart in flight. Investigators continue to be hamstrung by the fact that the cockpit voice and flight data recorders have not been recovered, but a new search is expected in 2010.
Russian Helicopters, JSC, and Uzrosavia of Uzbekistan signed a five-year agreement in December to work together to service and maintain Russian rotorcraft in Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries.
Iberia Maintenance will conduct line maintenance for DHL Air’s Boeing 757s in Spain under a three-year contract. Iberia will service DHL's 34 aircraft in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and Vitoria; the agreement extends Iberia Maintenance's work for DHL beyond a 10-year contract signed in May 2009 for maintenance of 80 Rolls-Royce RB211 engines.
LONDON—Etihad Airways is introducing a new aircraft exterior coating program to its entire fleet, making it the first major international airline to use the treatment. The Etihad decision to treat its existing fleet and all new aircraft deliveries will introduce the coating to long-haul airline operations for the first time. Etihad’s global network will provide the platform that determines the program’s results.
Air France KLM named Bruno Delile, who until recently was senior VP international and business development for Air France Industries, president of AMG, a group subsidiary that specializes in component support. He also will serve as senior VP Operations AFI KLM E&M for the Americas. Fabrice Defrance, formerly in charge of engineering and AF operational aircraft maintenance for AFI, took over for Delile as AFI KLM E&M senior VP, Commercial and Business Development.
The U.S. Air Force tapped Northrop Grumman to develop an anti-jam embedded Global Positioning Satellite and inertial navigation unit for its A-10C Thunderbolt fleet under a $3.3 million, 18-month task order. With subcontractors BAE Systems Control and Borsight Aerospace, Northrop will carry out integrated architecture and life-cycle costs analysis, install a temporary EGI modification, develop a system safety program, and provide program and engineering management support during flight-test operational assessments.
SR Technics and Garuda Indonesia Airways extended their component services contract through 2014. The agreement covers exchange, MRO, logistics and management of more than 700 components for Garuda Indonesias current fleet of 10 Airbus A330s as well as additional A330s it plans to add. Facilities
—Expect to see high-level aftermarket responsibility shift to the U.S. government from industry as the government takes over some resource allocation. This move comes as the Defense Department faces major equipment maintenance because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has less planned funding to provide for it. It also comes at a time when manufacturers rely on aftermarket revenue streams, which have been hit by the recession.
The Defense Ministry has given AgustaWestland a £439 million ($715 million) integrated operation support contract for maintenance of its 67 Apache helicopters in the U.K. The deal frees up military personnel who work on the attack helicopter to deploy to Afghanistan and support operations 24/7 there. Work on the Apache in the U.K. is done at Wattisham Airfield, Suffolk. Eighteen months ago, the Apache Depth Support Unit there was run entirely by military technicians. Now, 180 personnel from AgustaWestland are replacing them.
Lufthansa Technik inked a seven-year component services deal with Olympic Air for 26 aircraft, 16 Airbus A320s and 10 Bombardier Q400s, that includes writing specifications, initial provisioning studies, home base allocation, MRO, troubleshooting, documentation and engineering services.
The most important factors in an airline’s selection of an airframe maintenance firm typically are quality, turnaround time (TAT) and price, in that order. Airlines usually rank TAT ahead of price because it can cost $10,000 a day to lease a narrowbody for each day of planned TAT, and several times that for a widebody, according to maintenance consultants at Oliver Wyman. Unplanned TAT delays cost even more in revenue losses.
