New Coating Systems, Repair Kit AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings has launched three new products—a new repair kit, a two-coat commercial aircraft exterior painting system, and a camouflage military coating system.
Chromalloy added Tim Ulles as general manager of its gas turbine engine repair and maintenance operation near Atlanta. Ulles previously was division manager of Barnes Aerospace's Windsor, Conn., OEM division.
Merlin HC Mk3/3a medium-lift helicopters flown by Royal Air Force Sqdn. 78 are the latest U.K. rotorcraft to be upgraded for Afghanistan. The Merlins, built by AgustaWestland, were scheduled for deployment by the end of 2009. The £45-million ($75-million) upgrade included installation of rotor blades that are designed for the hot-high flying conditions of the country and electronic countermeasures to guard against threats.
Interior, Exterior LED Aircraft Lights Heads Up Technologies offers new LED cabin interior lighting for the Beechcraft King Air 350i and an exterior LED light system for the Cessna CJ family. Originally developed for the CJ4, the LED landing lights now are available for CJ1, CJ2 and CJ3, as well.
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.
The headlines regarding AVIATION WEEK’s annual workforce study tend to focus on program execution. What they do not specifically address are the very real impact points on the support of those programs once they are delivered to customers. And, it’s a point the data tend to reinforce with precision.
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
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.
ST Aerospace Mobile will carry out $90 million in airframe MRO for a U.S. carrier, the name of which wasn’t disclosed, starting in the first quarter of next year. The three-year contract covers C checks and heavy maintenance visits for a fleet of Airbus A320s and Boeing 767s, and it includes an option for a two-year extension. If the carrier exercises the options, the work could be worth $170 million. Engines
Lean and Six Sigma often start in maintenance by cleaning out hangars, putting items not needed frequently into well-organized warehouses. You have to be able to see clearly what you are doing before you can improve it.
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.
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.
