China Eastern has ordered Rockwell Collins HUDs for 58 Boeing 737s

Most non-aviation people believe life’s lone certainties are death and taxes. Those who understand aircraft operations know there is at least one more: maintenance downtime.

A backlog of foreign repair station applications created by a byzantine U.S. congressional mandate is forcing airlines to reconsider both expansion and contract maintenance strategies, because desired stations don't have FAA-approved shops to work on U.S.-registered aircraft. (Credit: Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings)

Nation's aerospace industry mushrooms with 270 factories.

When International Airlines Group completed the purchase of British Midland International (BMI) from Lufthansa in late April 2012, it presented British Airways with the major challenge of quickly bringing BMI’s Airbus narrowbodies into BA’s existing fleet. From May 2012 to January 2013, in what BA describes as “an extremely complex process,” it integrated 11 Airbus A319s, seven A320s and seven A321s from BMI into its fleet. BMI’s two A330s were returned to lessors because BA does not operate Airbus widebodies.

Forty-three years after entering revenue service, the Pratt & Whitney JT9D series continues to power a cross section of operators sprinkled around the globe. While still diverse, the cross section is much thinner than in years past, however, with many operators flying just a handful of engines. It is a sign of the steady and inevitable decline facing the venerable series.

Malaysian maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) company Airod Aerospace Technologies (AAT) is in talks with French company Altran about becoming a completion center for Airbus A320 passenger-to-freighter conversions. Altran is an engineering consultancy that recently established an office in Kuala Lumpur to serve Southeast Asia.

JetBlue Airways, whose unit costs for maintenance rose nearly 70% from 2010 to 2012, expects to lower annual increases to about 5% in the next few years, thanks in part to flight-hour agreements and price caps on some of its heavy overhaul work, CFO Mark Powers says.