JetBlue Airways is targeting high-density markets as part of an effort to control costs, and has initiated a significant fleet revamp and a major retrofit program to reach its goal. The fleet plan, which upgauges and expands the airline’s Airbus narrowbody order book and defers 24 Embraer 190s, dominated the conversation during JetBlue’s Oct. 29 third-quarter earnings call, both in its scope and its financial implications.

BAE Systems, making quick inroads into commercial aircraft maintenance, will support certain electronics on Japan Airlines Boeing 737-800s, 767s, and 777s. The three-year deal—the second commercial aftermarket win in a month for the defense- and security-focused company—includes repairs, spares and modifications. On Oct. 1, BAE Systems started a base maintenance support deal for Tigerair Australia. BAE is supporting the carrier’s Airbus A320 fleet from its Melbourne International Airport hangar. 

The surging surplus parts market caught Rockwell Collins off-guard in 2013 and held down the company’s airline aftermarket revenue growth, which still increased 6% on the strength of mandate-related avionics retrofits.

Lufthansa Technik (LHT) has purchased a 15% stake in AeroTurbine, giving the European company a major link in the surplus parts supply chain and providing AeroTurbine owner International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) with a partner well-positioned to help it manage its huge fleet.

In late December 2011, a U.S. Marine Corps mechanic conducting a routine phase inspection of a UH-1Y Huey discovered that the helicopter’s transmission pylon beam and the main beam joint were disintegrating. Left unchecked, the problem would have resulted in disaster. The mechanic’s finding led to a Corps-wide inspection and, ultimately, the release of an engineering advisory report.

An article in the Oct. 28 issue of Aviation Daily on an FAA directive ordering checks of Boeing 747-8 power control actuators (PCAs) for missing bushings should have stated that only one instance of missing PCA bushings has been reported.

Boeing, which has struggled to cash in on the massive aftermarket support market its aircraft generate, is designing the 737 MAX and soon-to-be-launched 777X with an eye on grabbing a greater share of the maintenance work the models will need, the company’s top executive says. “We are mindful of the lifecycle costs and revenues associated with decisions we make on these programs,” Boeing President and CEO James McNerney said last week during an earnings call. “We are thinking harder about that issue, and leaning forward more than perhaps we did on the 787.”

If GE Aviation's use of direct metal laser melting is any indication of how additive manufacturing could radically change parts production and supply chains, the industry should be on alert. GE has used additive manufacturing technologies over the years, but its purchase of Morris Technologies and Rapid Quality Manufacturing (RQM) in November 2012 provided a quantum leap into direct metal laser melting (DMLM), which it views as a disruptive manufacturing technology.