Aviation Technical Services finished outfitting the first Hawaiian Airlines 767-300ER with a shipset of Aviation Partners Boeing winglets in early November, and it planned to deliver a second aircraft equipped with the winglets later in the month. ATS is installing eight shipsets of the APB winglets on Hawaiian 767-300ERs over the next several months at its Everett, Wash., facility, per a September contract.
The most important factors in an airline’s selection of an airframe maintenance firm typically are quality, turnaround time (TAT) and price, in that order. Airlines usually rank TAT ahead of price because it can cost $10,000 a day to lease a narrowbody for each day of planned TAT, and several times that for a widebody, according to maintenance consultants at Oliver Wyman. Unplanned TAT delays cost even more in revenue losses.
Spirit AeroSystems and Slingsby Advanced Composites both opened facilities at Scotland’s Prestwick Airport in October, in line with an initiative headed by Scottish Enterprise to increase research and development activity in the country’s small- to medium-sized enterprise sector, which employs around 22,000 people and supports the jobs of 30,000 more. Together the facilities should generate more than 70 new jobs.
Duncan Aviation added two new online tools for operators: a maintenance event planning Web resource and an MRO comparison worksheet. The Web-based planning tool is designed to help owners/operators and maintenance directors identify their needs before asking for a quote, which should save time and generate a more accurate quote, says Duncan VP of Sales John Slieter. And, the worksheet should help operators compare service providers once they receive quotes.
Airline Services Components signed an agreement with low-fare Russian start-up Avianova to provide wheels and brakes support for the airlines Airbus A320s on a cost-per-landing basis.
Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services finished up the first major overhaul event for a Bombardier Global Express aircraft in Europe on schedule in October. The joint venture of the OEM, Lufthansa Technik and ExecuJet, located at Berlin-Schoenefeld airport in Germany, carried out the work for a Spanish customer, a worldwide operating hotel group. The event, an 8C check, is the biggest regular maintenance event for the Bombardier jet, one that comes due every 10 years and compares to a D check for large commercial aircraft.
Gulfstream Aerospace named John Liotta eastern senior regional sales manager, product support sales, responsible for maintenance sales to Gulfstream and non-Gulfstream operators in New Jersey. Liotta reports to Scott McDonald, director of service center sales for the eastern region.
Fokker Services and Denim Air launched a bundled services program in October to support new Fokker 50, Fokker 100 and Bombardier Dash-8 operators. Their Take Off start-up solution is designed to provide new operators with aircraft, maintenance crew and insurance (ACMI) from Denim Air and logistic and technical support from Fokker Services. Fokker also recently expanded its capabilities with additional aircraft painting services through a partnership with Maastricht Aviation Aircraft Services, which will operate Fokker Services’ aircraft paint hangar at Woensdrecht.
Air Works received European Aviation Safety Agency repair station certification for its maintenance facilities at Hosur in Tamil Nadu to cover airframe and component major maintenance on ATR 42/72-500 aircraft and Boeing 737 Classic/New Generation aircraft. While the FAA approval is expected to take some more time, the EASA approval for A320s is expected within two months. This is the first time EASA has awarded a repair station approval to an independent airframe MRO company in India. The company already has carried out checks on two ATRs and two 737s.
Ahlers Aerospace amended STC to install a night vision goggle-compatible interior lighting system on Eurocopter Deutschland MBB-BK 117 B-1 and MBB-BK 117 B-2 helicopters, STC SR09523RC
Inventory Management Software Module A new inventory management program from Textron company SkyBOOKS allows users to add, track, edit and expand cores, bench stock and consumables. The module interfaces directly with the SkyBOOKS system to accommodate flight managers who manage local inventory pools.
StandardAero added Pat Conroy as regional sales manager for its Southern California Region. Conroy, whose career in business aviation services sales includes managing regional sales for Garrett Aviation, will be based at StandardAero’s Los Angeles International Airport facility.
Mxi Technologies and Pba Consult formed a strategic teaming agreement focused on providing an aviation lifecycle management solution to one of Russia’s top aircraft manufacturers. Contracts Commercial
The Defense Ministry has given AgustaWestland a £439 million ($715 million) integrated operation support contract for maintenance of its 67 Apache helicopters in the U.K. The deal frees up military personnel who work on the attack helicopter to deploy to Afghanistan and support operations 24/7 there. Work on the Apache in the U.K. is done at Wattisham Airfield, Suffolk. Eighteen months ago, the Apache Depth Support Unit there was run entirely by military technicians. Now, 180 personnel from AgustaWestland are replacing them.
—Expect to see high-level aftermarket responsibility shift to the U.S. government from industry as the government takes over some resource allocation. This move comes as the Defense Department faces major equipment maintenance because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has less planned funding to provide for it. It also comes at a time when manufacturers rely on aftermarket revenue streams, which have been hit by the recession.
SR Technics and Garuda Indonesia Airways extended their component services contract through 2014. The agreement covers exchange, MRO, logistics and management of more than 700 components for Garuda Indonesias current fleet of 10 Airbus A330s as well as additional A330s it plans to add. Facilities
MTU Maintenance Canada will do engine depot work on U.S. Air Force KC-10 Extender tanker aircraft at its facility in Richmond, B.C. MTU is part of a team led by Northrop Grumman that is providing maintenance, engineering, field service support and condition monitoring for 204 CF6-50C2 engines. Other contractors working with MTU are Chromolloy and AAR Corp. MTU’s part of the nine-year deal is valued at $500 million. The work includes aerial refueling system support for two KDC-10s operated by the Netherlands.
Lufthansa Technik inked a seven-year component services deal with Olympic Air for 26 aircraft, 16 Airbus A320s and 10 Bombardier Q400s, that includes writing specifications, initial provisioning studies, home base allocation, MRO, troubleshooting, documentation and engineering services.
—Mass air travel can be seen as both a boon and a bane for humanity: a boon because it facilitates social, leisure and business opportunities, and a bane because the close confines of passenger aircraft cabins could potentially facilitate the international spread of human diseases. The outbreaks of SARS and bird flu this decade and the imminent potential of a swine flu pandemic have concentrated efforts to clean cabin air of every conceivable contaminant.
Omni Air International selected Delta TechOps component and inventory support, including avionics and hydraulics, for its Boeing 767-300ER fleet. The companies didn’t disclose the value of the five-year agreement. Omni operates one 767, but it expects to add up to three in the near future. As the fleet grows, Delta will cover the additional 767s with an amendment to the current agreement, according to a Delta spokeswoman. The deal took effect on Aug. 18 but was announced in early November. Delta has been providing component support for Omni’s 757-200ERs fleet since 2003.
