Overhaul & Maintenance MRO Blog

Let's Make Some Money

Large commercial, regional and GA airplane aftermarket sales at Goodrich increased 21 percent in the first quarter 2007 over the first three months of last year, the company said Thursday in releasing its quarterly financial results. Noting the huge aircraft order backlogs at the OEMs, the continuing strong flow of new orders, airline capacity increases and the likelihood [my word, not their's] that even [again, my word, not their's] most U.S. airlines will return to profitability this year, Goodrich Chairman, President and CEO Marshall Larsen said: "These trends bode very well for our commercial aftermarket sales, which we believe will grow by more than 10 percent in 2007, and will continue to grow at a rate significantly greater than capacity growth in the global airline system beyond 2007." In the same release, which you can read for yourself by clicking here, Goodrich bumped up its full-year sales outlook to $6.3 billion to $6.5 billion. It's previous guidance was for sales in the $6.2 billion to $6.4 billion range. -- Frank Jackman

Branding and "Too Dirty To Fly"

Branding Strategy Insider's Branding Blog has a great posting called "10 New Rules of Branding." I urge you to read it. Some of those rules include "Pulse, pace and passion really make a difference." "Forget the transaction, just give me an experience." "Deliver clarity at the point of purchase." "Customize wherever and whenever you can." "Social responsibility is no longer an option."

Examples of all 10 rules can be seen throughout aviation, but let me focus on the five mentioned above.

1. "Pulse, pace and passion." Numerous aviation companies and executives could fit into this category, in my opinion. Just look at ATA's Nuts & Bolts winners, who are leading their companies in innovation. Other companies that quickly come to mind are Pratt & Whitney, for its leadership training and aftermarket expansion, and Aeroman for its continual promotion of excellence. There are obviously more. Who would you nominate and why?

2. "Forget the transaction, just give me an experience." This is not to say the monetary value is irrelevant, but people want to be "wowed every day." Virgin America's Guy Borowski addressed this point in discussing the airline's choice of Lufthansa Technik to provide Total Material Operations and line maintenance.  He said the agreement with Lufthansa Technik saves the airline money and should increase its performance, so Virgin America can "concentrate on delivering a great product to customers."

3. "Deliver clarity at the point of purchase." Lots of options exist for service, but does your company promote the plethora of options in a simple way? Honeywell's new customer support is a good example of this. See O&M's MRO Blog with Adrian Paull, Honeywell Aerospace's vice president of customer and product support. In this case, streamlined doesn't mean fewer people providing customer service, but rather, one phone number and an intelligence routing systems that gets customers to the right person typically in 16 seconds.

4. "Customize wherever and whenever you can." With the exception of streamlining data sharing standards, which was a hot topic of discussion at our MRO Conference last week, evidence exists through the aviation aftermarket industry that customers want options tailored to their needs. One size does not fit all. What are some of the best examples you know of and why?

5. "Social responsibility is no longer an option." The aviation industry is addressing its environmental impact in numerous ways and is greening everything from engine emissions to parts cleaning. easyJet today emailed a press released titled "Time to Ban 700 Aircraft 'Too Dirty Too Fly.'" For the past year, easyJet has really been promoting reduced CO2 emissions and greener aviation. In today's release, easyJet says its passenger carbon footprint is less than a Toyota Prius. In addition, SAS has an emissions calculator on its website, which allows passengers to tabulate their emissions on particular flights. Aviation companies around the globe are greening, and it is good for their brand. --By Lee Ann Tegtmeier

Foreign Repair Station Security

Legislation to require security standards at foreign repairs stations was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives late last week and referred to the House Committee on Homeland Security. The bill (H.R. 1981) would require TSA to issue regulations establishing security standards at foreign Part 145 repair stations doing work for Part 121 carriers. The legislation says that if final regulations are not issued within 60 days following enactment of the bill, then TSA must issue an order prohibiting use of foreign repair stations except in an emergency. The bill was sponsored by Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.) and co-sponsored by Reps. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). Organized labor, in the form of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, immediately came out in support of the bill.

Supporting VLJs

A session on VLJs (very light jets) at AVIATION WEEK's MRO Conference last week discussed supporting these aircraft, which typically have a max takeoff weight of less than 10,000 pounds and cost between $1 million to $4 million, according to Ron Swanda, GAMA senior VP. Although estimates vary widely -- largely because no one knows if the air taxi concept will work -- Swanda said 150 to 450 VLJs deliveries per year sounds plausible.

The Cessna Mustang and the Eclipse 500 already are certified and the A700 AdamJet should receive FAA certification this year.

Mark Reed, DayJet's VP of maintenance operations, obviously thinks the air taxi concept will work and emphasized that operators expect cost-sensitivity considerations for MRO -- direct operating costs are assumed to be proportionally lower because of the price point of the aircraft.

Kay Ardalan of Adam Aircraft said few VLJ owners will perform their own maintenance and that new MRO models are needed, including remote support bases, to support these aircraft, which have fewer parts, glass cockpits and electronicall controlled systems. He said Adam Aircraft will very closely control repairs on composites initially.

Embraer's Clint Clouatre said the OEM expects to first fly the Phenom 100 this summer and it will support Phenom VLJs via through its four service centers and authorized network, which includes Duncan Aviation, Eagle Creek, Elliott Aviation, Premier, Stevens Aviation and West Star. He said Embraer forecasts 2,715 VLJs to enter the market in the next decade.  --By Lee Ann Tegtmeier

Airbus MRO Network Notes

Fittingly, Airbus talked a bit about its MRO network at the MRO show this week, making some news in the process. Besides announcing plans to form an MRO executive board and bootstrap some independent MRO training efforts, Airbus Senior Director-MRO Support Management Wolfgang Kortas said the OEM would like to expand its 15-member strong MRO network. He said Airbus is in talks with potential partners in Africa--one of the regions where Airbus needs a presence to "complete the network." Also on the OEM's radar: Latin America, where only one of 15 members (El Salvador's Aeroman) is located, India, and the Gulf Region.

Kotas also offered a few more details on how the deal to handle all of the maintenance for startup Skybus came about. When Skybus came to Airbus and said it wanted the OEM to supply soup-to-nuts maintenance support, the OEM referred the airline's executives to Airbus MRO partners, including ST Aerospace. "But Skybus said, 'No, you don't understand. We want you.'" Part of the rationale: having Airbus by its side and interfacing directly with the service providers will bring Skybus instant credibility throughout the supply chain.

--Sean Broderick

Audio Snippets from MRO

Our MRO editorial team posted lots of news, analysis and observations from AVIATION WEEK's MRO Conference & Exhibition this week in Atlanta. We thought you might like to have all of the digital interviews in one handy place, so here they are. Just click on the person's name and listen to the interviews, which typically are four to five minutes long.

Tim Nichols, head of aerospace and defense marketing for UGS

Clay Jones, Rockwell Collins chairman, president and CEO

Dave Shotsberger, Continental Airlines' director of technical operations for the Southeast U.S., Europe and Caribbean

Tim Shumate, marketing manager for Cytec Engineering Materials, and  Mark Loyd, lead engineer of composites for American Airlines .

Tony Charaf, senior vice president of Delta Technical Operations

Brian O'Keefe, an Australian expert on satellite navigation and ATC modernization in the Asia Pacific region

MRO Rocks in Hot'Lanta

Several hundred MRO conference attendees rocked out to the sounds of George Thorogood and the Destroyers Wednesday night. At a customer get together hosted by Airliance Materials the band performed a one hour 20 minute set that included Bad to the Bone and Move it on Over. Wednesday night at MRO is chocked full of customer events including baseballs games, dinners and numerous receptions.

The band's song list included:

• Rock Party
• Who do you love?
• Cocaine Blues
• Night Time
• I Drink Alone
• BSB
• Got my eyes on you
• Get a haircut
• Bad to the Bone
• Move it on Over
• Love doctor.

Photos by: Ed Hazelwood

Airlines Detail Key Issues for Industry Focus

About 40 airlines maintenance executives from around the world met this past Wednesday at MRO 2007 North America for an airline's only meeting designed to surface what they believe are the main issues that need to be focused on and to highlight where the solutions might lie.  The results of that effort were then tabulated and presented in the closing session of MRO yesterday.  Challenges facing the industry include on-call contracts with maintenance providers, the need to implement a modern air traffic control system, the need to create best practices for lean and to measure the results and much more.

Download MRO_AirlineOnly.pdf

Attached is a pdf file of the slides created to present the results during the closing session of the conference yesterday.

Ed Hazelwood

Editorial Director

Aviation Week Conferences

Spirit AeroSystems Delivers First Forward Fuselage for 787 Dreamliner

Spirit AeroSystems of Wichita, a program partner on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner project, has rolled out the first of more than 500 all-composite forward fuselages to be delivered to Boeing in Everett, Wash.

Spirit is designing and manufacturing the front portion of the fuselage, known as Section 41, as well as the fixed and moveable leading wing edges, struts and pylons. Section 41 is complete with landing gear—a new task for Spirit—and has a distinctive domed aluminum bulkhead designed to absorb energy like a trampoline in the event of a bird strike.

-- Jennifer Michels

Charaf Talks About Delta's Tech Ops Strategy

Tony Charaf, senior vice president of Delta Technical Operations, spoke with O&M at AVIATION WEEK's MRO Conference & Exhibition here in Atlanta about Delta's outlook for the next five years. He also talked about MROs and integrators. Charaf was the recipient of a prestigious ATA Nuts & Bolts award on April 17.  Listen to the interview.   -- Lee Ann Tegtmeier