Boeing’s engineering team of more than 300 personnel has started to install battery kits in 10 of the 50 grounded 787s and nine of the 25 787-8s produced since the FAA ordered a halt to flights mid-January, says Chairman and CEO James McNerney. During the company’s April 24 first quarter earnings conference call, McNerney said the company has a “high degree of confidence that we’ll get through it by mid-May.” Deliveries are expected to begin early next month.

State-owned military aircraft manufacturer Indonesian Aerospace (IAe) is using its supplier contacts to develop its commercial maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business. Andi Alisjahban, IAe’s director of technology and engineering, speaking to Aviation Week at the Airlines and Airports Conference and Exhibition in Jakarta, says the company plans to perform engine maintenance and overhauls on CFM International CFM56 and Pratt & Whitney PW100 engines.

As Japanese airlines begin installing the battery fix developed by Boeing for its grounded 787s, the carriers are turning their attention to flight tests and the eventual resumption of scheduled service with the aircraft. Both All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines confirm that the battery modifications on their 787s started April 22. The two rivals account for the majority of the 787s delivered so far, and they have been hardest hit by the aircraft’s grounding due to problems with its lithium-ion batteries.

A major fleet turnover in the next decade combined with even more efficient engines coming to market on the newest aircraft will combine to keep the North American engine MRO market stagnant for the next decade, TeamSAI reports. North American engine MRO will generate about $7.0 billion in work in 2013, Team SAI Senior Vice President & Principal Tom Cooper said during Aviation Week’s MRO Americas conference in Atlanta. That number will rise to $7.2 billion in 2018, and slide back to $6.9 billion in 2023. The driver?

The FAA is concerned that fatigue cracks in the flap track systems of Boeing 757s could lead to inboard flap failures and loss-of-control.

The FAA has approved Boeing’s design modifications to the 787 battery system, a move that will allow the aircraft to reenter service once the changes are made to the fleet and verified by the FAA. The approval, which will be official next week upon publication of a final directive and “instructions to operators for making the changes,” ends a three-month grounding of the widebody resulting from two incidents of smoke and fire from the 787’s lithium-ion battery systems.

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The civil aviation MRO market will be worth about $56 billion this year, with engine maintenance expenditures representing about 40%, say analysts who presented forecasts at Aviation Week’s MRO Americas Conference in Atlanta. The civil aviation fleet will grow at a 3.1% rate over the next decade despite the fact that 6,400 jets and turboprops will leave the market through 2022, according to an ICF SH&E MRO market forecast.