Airline Services Components signed an agreement with low-fare Russian start-up Avianova to provide wheels and brakes support for the airlines Airbus A320s on a cost-per-landing basis.
Universal Asset Management became a member of the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association. UAM is an aircraft dismantling and components recycling organization with facilities in Memphis; Atlanta; Phoenix; Walnut Ridge, Ark.; and Pocahontas, Ark.
Pratt & Whitney Canada is giving participants in its Eagle Service plan a FLEX enrollment option that allows operators of in-service engines to defer payment for the majority of hours flown prior to enrollment to a convenient time in the future, including up to the scheduled engine overhaul event, all without variable or unpredictable pro-rate charges. The option, announced at NBAA, is available for a limited time in conjunction with each of the four coverage levels of the companys ESP program—Gold, Silver, Gold Lite and Silver Lite.
Duncan Aviation added two new online tools for operators: a maintenance event planning Web resource and an MRO comparison worksheet. The Web-based planning tool is designed to help owners/operators and maintenance directors identify their needs before asking for a quote, which should save time and generate a more accurate quote, says Duncan VP of Sales John Slieter. And, the worksheet should help operators compare service providers once they receive quotes.
—Ameco Beijing is making good progress in dealing with a maintenance manager’s nightmare: how to fill up huge additions to capacity coming on line in the middle of a severe global recession. “We’ve spent the last few years completing our expansion,” says chief executive and joint general manager Andreas Meisel. “Now our work is to utilize it.”
Whether you’re talking about stocking produce on a grocery store shelf, delivering subassemblies to an automotive line or stocking parts for an MRO facility, inventory management comes down to four Rs: The right part at the right place at the right time and at the right price. In the MRO business, you can add two more Rs—a part in the right condition and the right configuration.
TAP Maintenance and Engineering Brazil completed its first Airbus A330 C check in the promised 23-day turnaround time in early November. The achievement underscores the big push the MRO has made to expand its Airbus service capabilities and gain certification from Transport Canada, EASA, the FAA and Brazilian ANAC. The first A330 is operated by Air Transat, a customer who also has had 10 A310s undergo maintenance at TAP’s facilities in Rio de Janeiro.
Fokker Services chief engineer Rudi den Hertog retired in November and was succeeded by Dirk van Os, who formerly was responsible for ground and flight testing. den Hertog joined Fokker in 1969 as a project engineer and recently worked with Rekkof Aircraft on the next generation of Fokker jet aircraft. He will continue at Rekkof Aircraft as chief engineer and will support Fokker Services as a senior consultant.
The first set of P-3 Orion wings have been delivered to the Royal Norwegian Air Force by Lockheed Martin as part of the company’s Aircraft Service Life Extension Program (ASLEP). The Norwegian Air Force is the program’s launch customer. The goal is to replace fatigue-life limiting structures in the P-3 and reduce maintenance costs. ASLEP replaces the outer wings, center wing lower surface assembly, horizontal stabilizer, wing and horizontal stabilizer leading edges and filet fairings.
M7 Aerospace added Z Corp.’s handheld ZScanner 700 PX laser scanner, which can scan large objects, including entire aircraft, to create three-dimensional digital models for reverse engineering and other capabilities. It also established a new burn test laboratory that meets Department of Transportation and FAA requirements.
Mxi Technologies and Pba Consult formed a strategic teaming agreement focused on providing an aviation lifecycle management solution to one of Russia’s top aircraft manufacturers. Contracts Commercial
Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services opened a new, two-bay maintenance hangar at Shanghai Pudong Airport on Oct. 15. The MRO, a joint venture of Boeing, Shanghai Airport Authority and Shanghai Airlines, performs line and heavy maintenance and upgrades of interiors, avionics and inflight entertainment systems for 737NG aircraft. Future plans for the Shanghai joint venture include adding services for widebody aircraft and passenger-to-freighter conversions.
—The European Aviation Safety Agency has approved and certified Airbus’ Brake-To-Vacate (BTV) and Runway Overrun Warning and Prevention (ROW/ROP) for the Airbus A380 following successful development testing. BTV is designed to ease airport congestion and improve runway turnaround time, while ROW/ROP addresses runway excursion risk at landing. Both BTV and ROW/ROP have been patented by Airbus.
Rockwell Collins added five updates to its Pro Line 21 retrofit package for Dassault Falcon 50 aircraft, including National Transmission Standards Committee video display capabilities for its multi-function display, expanded XM Satellite weather capabilities, three-engine indication, wall-to-wall attitude director indication and ADS-B Out capable transponders. Rockwell Collins also offers a five-year warranty for the Pro Line 21 shipset. Parts/Components
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
FAA is attempting to standardize and update its parts approval and marking procedures under a recently released final rule. But, industry groups still are waiting for guidance to see how this will affect their businesses, says Ric Peri, VP of government and industry affairs for the Aerospace Electronics Association. The rule was written in a manner that gives the agency “a lot of latitude in the guidance,” Peri notes.
The U.A.E. plans to develop and implement a new licensing law to tighten airline and cargo operations, safety and security, according to U.A.E. newspaper the Khaleej Times. Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi, director-general of the U.A.E.'s General Civil Aviation Authority, says the new licensing law also will result in a published blacklist of airlines banned from the country, the newspaper reports. Suwaidi says the list, which contains 30 operators, is not a carbon copy of the European Union's blacklist, though it also is based on ICAO safety requirements and standards.
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.
Embraer has finished rolling out Component Control’s Quantum Control enterprise resource planning software at its five MRO centers, with its Gavião Peixoto, Brazil, finishing the software implementation in October.
Euravia Engineering signed a five-year contract with the Royal Netherlands Air Force to repair and overhaul the PT6A-25C engines that power its fleet of Pilatus PC-7 aircraft.
