What started as routine maintenance for Transaero Airlines turned into an MRO acquisition. The Russian airline had chosen Shannon Repair Services (SRS) to refurbish its aircraft to make them Wifi-enabled, but subsequently decided to invest in the MRO and take it over. The move is giving Transaero access to another in-house maintenance base.

With a record year in the offing for 2012, the three-year worldwide market for overhauls of International Aero Engines V2500 medium turbofans is expected to top $6 billion, half of which will come from carriers in the U.S., China and the U.K.

Aviation financiers and manufacturers remain strongly interested in consolidating maintenance, even if the process seems slow at times.

Avia Solutions Group Chairman Gediminas Ziemelis talks about how the fast-growing company primarily targets the 300 airlines within a 3-hr. flight of its headquarters in Vilnius, Lithuania, but operates from 40 locations worldwide.

The first-stage engine blade on one of Delta Air Lines' fleet of 152 CFM CFM56-7 engines may cost around $1,000, but the ramifications of unmitigated pitting and cracking can cost much more in unscheduled maintenance. To prevent this corrosion pitting, fretting, stress corrosion cracking or foreign object damage from causing major problems in its fleet of 152 CFM56-7 engines, Delta TechOps partnered with Lambda Technologies of Cincinnati to develop a technology called low-plasticity burnishing (LPB).

The FAA's new proposed repair station regulations appear to mix much-needed improvements with bureaucratic burdens that may ultimately increase the complexity of Part 145 certification and compliance, initial analysis of the major proposal reveals.

Transferring leased aircraft between different regulatory authorities can cause headaches and add maintenance costs.

Frankfurt Tight Space