Airbus hopes to have a final fix for an A380 wing component cracking problem in hand in “a couple of weeks.” Progress is being made, and the goal is return the aircraft wing to the full projected life cycle, Airbus Executive VP-Programs Tom Williams tells Aviation Week on the sidelines of the Global Aerospace Summit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Achieving the full 19,000 flight cycles is key to financiers. The fix will be installed on new aircraft, those already in service and those completed and still undergoing cabin furnishing.

Knocked out by the great tsunami on March 11 last year, the Sendai Maintenance Center of Japanese aerospace group Jamco is nearing full recovery.

A September 2011 report by a National Academy of Sciences panel called for major changes in Air Force management of sustainment.

India’s maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) industry could expand by 300% to $1.369 billion by 2020 from $440 million in 2010, boosted by a government plan to exempt aircraft spares and other equipment from customs duties, according to a civil aviation ministry report.

GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes' maintenance facility in Belo Horizonte has been authorization by Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency to paint all types of commercial aircraft registered in Brazil, and not just GOL’s Boeing 737 fleet, as previously permitted. (Photo credit: Air Team Images)

Qantas' final repair bill for the A380 damaged in 2010 will be $143.3 million, more than one-third the list price for a new aircraft.

The expansion of Safran’s nacelle and thrust reverser repair services in the U.S. supports an emerging trend in the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) market: the growing presence of original equipment manufacturers through key partnerships.

Lufthansa Technik (LHT), following a careful and slow expansion of its capabilities, can now handle three widebody completions simultaneously–ust in time for a peak in that market, said Walter Heerdt, senior VP-marketing and sales at the recent Asian Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition in Shanghai. A Boeing 767-400 now being completed at LHT’s Hamburg facility will be joined by a 747-8, the first of that model, in September and another in December or January, Heerdt says.