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.
Spirit AeroSystems and Slingsby Advanced Composites both opened facilities at Scotland’s Prestwick Airport in October, in line with an initiative headed by Scottish Enterprise to increase research and development activity in the country’s small- to medium-sized enterprise sector, which employs around 22,000 people and supports the jobs of 30,000 more. Together the facilities should generate more than 70 new jobs.
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.
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
Compliance, compliance, compliance. For a moment, consider MRO’s modern mantra, upon which rests much of this industry’s laws and profits. “One of the big drivers that started us down this new [information] technology path was compliance,” says David A. Marcontell, president of TeamSAI M&E Solutions. “We simply were not staying within the regs.”
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.
Peerless Electronics added Robert M. Levine as CFO and VP Finance, reporting to President and CEO Al Shankman. It also added Tom Cunniff as an independent sales representative.
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.
Ahlers Aerospace amended STC to install a night vision goggle-compatible interior lighting system on Eurocopter Deutschland MBB-BK 117 B-1 and MBB-BK 117 B-2 helicopters, STC SR09523RC
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.
StandardAero added Pat Conroy as regional sales manager for its Southern California Region. Conroy, whose career in business aviation services sales includes managing regional sales for Garrett Aviation, will be based at StandardAero’s Los Angeles International Airport facility.
—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.
American Airlines plans to close its Kansas City maintenance base along with several smaller overnight facilities in Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and San Jose, Calif., next September. It also will reduce work in San Francisco and St. Louis. The closures translate into the elimination of about 700 positions, though more could be affected. Carmine Romano, SVP of maintenance and engineering, cited Americans reduced fleet and the major network realignment that it undertook earlier this year as factors in the decision.
—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.
Bedek Aviation Group is flight testing the prototype Boeing 767-300ER passenger to freighter conversion. It expects to deliver the aircraft to EuroAtlantic Airways of Portugal by the end of this year. This will be EuroAtlantic’s first cargo aircraft. Bedek developed the 767-300 conversion program for M&B Conversions of Dublin, which is a joint venture between Mitsui & Co. of Japan and Israel Aerospace Industries/Bedek.
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.
