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.
Intertek now is qualified to offer ANSI-ASQ Accreditation Board certification to the full AS9100 series of standards: AS9100, AS9003, AS9110 and AS9120. It received accreditation from the ANAB on Oct. 9 to offer certification to the AS9110 standard, the ISO 9001-based certification that defines quality management system requirements for MRO organizations.
Aviation Technical Services finished outfitting the first Hawaiian Airlines 767-300ER with a shipset of Aviation Partners Boeing winglets in early November, and it planned to deliver a second aircraft equipped with the winglets later in the month. ATS is installing eight shipsets of the APB winglets on Hawaiian 767-300ERs over the next several months at its Everett, Wash., facility, per a September contract.
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.
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
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
Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services finished up the first major overhaul event for a Bombardier Global Express aircraft in Europe on schedule in October. The joint venture of the OEM, Lufthansa Technik and ExecuJet, located at Berlin-Schoenefeld airport in Germany, carried out the work for a Spanish customer, a worldwide operating hotel group. The event, an 8C check, is the biggest regular maintenance event for the Bombardier jet, one that comes due every 10 years and compares to a D check for large commercial aircraft.
—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.
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.
Gulfstream Aerospace named John Liotta eastern senior regional sales manager, product support sales, responsible for maintenance sales to Gulfstream and non-Gulfstream operators in New Jersey. Liotta reports to Scott McDonald, director of service center sales for the eastern region.
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.
MTU Maintenance Canada will do engine depot work on U.S. Air Force KC-10 Extender tanker aircraft at its facility in Richmond, B.C. MTU is part of a team led by Northrop Grumman that is providing maintenance, engineering, field service support and condition monitoring for 204 CF6-50C2 engines. Other contractors working with MTU are Chromolloy and AAR Corp. MTU’s part of the nine-year deal is valued at $500 million. The work includes aerial refueling system support for two KDC-10s operated by the Netherlands.
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.
—Mass air travel can be seen as both a boon and a bane for humanity: a boon because it facilitates social, leisure and business opportunities, and a bane because the close confines of passenger aircraft cabins could potentially facilitate the international spread of human diseases. The outbreaks of SARS and bird flu this decade and the imminent potential of a swine flu pandemic have concentrated efforts to clean cabin air of every conceivable contaminant.
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.
Capital Aviation received an FAA supplemental type certificate for its Reflections Program to upgrade Bombardier Challenger 600 series aircraft with an end-to-end interior and exterior refurbishment and the installation of Universal Avionics’ WAAS-capable flight management system, EFI-890R flat-panel displays and terrain awareness and warning system.
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.
GMR Hyderabad International Airport and CFM International inked an agreement on Oct. 30 to set up a training center for CFM56 engine maintenance in Hyderabad’s GMR Aerospace Park. The two companies proposed forming the training center in January as a memorandum of understanding. Intended to support customers in South Asia, the MRO training center is set to open in January 2010 at the complex near Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. GHIAL will build the facility and lease it to CFM.
