MRO Actualités

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (LHT) and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] signed a letter of intent at the show yesterday to form a maintenance joint venture at Muscat international airport.
The new company will operate from a new "state-of-the-art" hangar and provide support for Oman Air's growing fleet as well as those of other carriers based in the region. Due to become operational in 2012, the hangar will be capable of accommodating up to two widebodies and two narrowbodies simultaneously.
Employing 300 technicians, the facility will offer maintenance through to light C checks for Airbus A330s and Boeing 737s, as well as Embraer and ATR regional aircraft.
"We are strengthening a well-established co-operative relationship," says LHT executive board chairman August Wilhelm Henningsen.
"In future we will be able to offer technical services directly in Oman to customers in a region that is one of the growth markets of international aviation," he adds.
On the basis of the intended contract, LHT will overhaul 15 Oman Air 737s from January 2010 at its European facilities in Malta, Budapest and Sofia.
Muscat airport is being modernised and expanded to cope with increasing numbers of tourists visiting Oman.

FRANCFORT (Allemagne), 18 nov 2009 (AFP)La deuxième compagnie aérienne allemande Air Berlin a annoncé mercredi avoir confié l'entretien technique de ses appareils à Lufthansa Technik, filiale de sa compatriote et rivale Lufthansa, la numéro un allemande.

Indonesia's largest privately-owned carrier Lion Air is proceeding with plans to establish a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) firm at Surabaya's Juanda Airport.
Construction of the hangar at Juanda Airport will start in next year's first quarter. It will be used for [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] line and heavy maintenance, says Lion president Rusdi Kirana.
The hangar will be next to Merpati Nusantara's MRO business, says Rusdi, adding that Merpati will be allowed to keep its MRO there.
The hangars are at a section of the airport that the Indonesian Navy controls. Lion has signed an agreement with the navy to jointly manage and develop that section.
Rusdi says they are now waiting for the Indonesian defence minister to approve the deal.
Lion wants an MRO business because it is cheaper and more reliable to do heavy maintenance in-house, says Rusdi, adding that the new MRO business will do the heavy checks on Lion's [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] 737-900ERs.
It has a fleet of 26 737-900ERs with one new aircraft coming each month until 2011 and from 2012 it will be two 737-900ERs each month, he adds.
Lion has also signed a firm order for 15 ATR 72-500s, with the first three to come next month, he adds.
Rusdi says Lion plans to do the heavy checks on the ATR 72s rather than send the turboprops to MRO firms overseas.
It is too expensive ferrying aircraft overseas and labour is cheaper in Indonesia, he says, adding that "labour accounts for 60-70% of the costs of a heavy check and the rest is materials".
Lion's move to bring 737-900ER airframe heavy checks in-house will eventually impact Garuda Indonesia's MRO firm GMF AeroAsia.
GMF announced in May that Lion had signed a new three-year contract to have GMF do heavy checks on its jet aircraft. Lion is one of GMF's largest customers.
Rusdi says Lion has no plans to perform heavy maintenance checks for third parties and that Lion will continue to outsource engine overhauls.

Taiwan's [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and Pratt & Whitney (P&W) have signed an engine parts repair and replacement agreement for the airline's PW4056 engines.
The deal is valued at about $60 million to $70 million, says P&W.

"We are pleased to select Pratt & Whitney for our inventory logistics needs for our PW4056 engines," says Derek Cridland, senior vice president of engineering and maintenance for China Airlines.
"As a trusted OEM (original equipment manufacturer), Pratt & Whitney is experienced at helping operators such as ourselves to add value to our business."
PW4056 engines are installed on nine of China Airlines' [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] aircraft, according to Flightglobal's ACAS database.

GE Aviation's Singapore service operation has started producing new blade dampers and seals for GE's [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] aircraft and LM marine engines.
The first production parts were shipped on 22 January, says GE Aviation.
Its Singapore site repairs and refurbishes high- and low-pressure turbine blades and vanes, combustors, rotating parts and seals for more than 100 aircraft engine customers around the world.

"Since 1981, the employees at the Singapore facility have demonstrated their outstanding component repair capabilities," says Jamie Regg, general manager of Turbine Airfoils Centre of Excellence, GE Aviation.
"GE is confident this same commitment to excellence will continue as the site begins manufacturing these small components for GE's popular CF6, CF34 and LM engines."

Dragon Aviation Leasing recently commissioned engineering and cabin modification work on an Airbus A320 from AFI KLM E&M on behalf of its Juneyao Airlines client.

At the customer’s request, AFI KLM E&M successfully took up the challenge of delivering the aircraft two weeks ahead of schedule while complying with the standards set by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and CAAC, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, so that Juneyao Airlines could operate it during China’s peak October holiday period.

To meet the requirements of its Juneyao Airlines customer, Dragon Aviation Leasing placed its trust in the experience of AFI KLM E&M for both modifications and certification.

AFI KLM E&M oversaw the contract end-to-end, including the Part 21 engineering component and the Part 145 cabin modifications under both CAAC and EASA regulations.

The modification transformed the A320 belonging to Dragon Aviation Leasing from a single-class configuration into a two-class “Business” and “Economy” version, a task that included the installation of new fittings and cabin partitions.

Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline and JetLite, its all-economy subsidiary, announced today the award of a Maintenance-By-the-Hour (MBH) contract to ST Aerospace for the support of Jet Airways’ CFM56-7B engines that power Jet Airways’ and JetLite’s fleet of 67 Boeing 737 next generation aircraft.

The contract is worth US$750m (about S$1050m) and is set to commence immediately.

Under the agreement, ST Aerospace’s wholly owned subsidiary, ST Aerospace Engines Pte Ltd, will provide comprehensive engines maintenance and engineering support over 10 years for Jet Airways’ 143 CFM56-7B engines, which includes the fleet operated by Jet Airways’ subsidiary, JetLite Limited. Work for both airlines will involve Total Engine Maintenance support.

The 10-year agreement was signed by Saroj K.Datta, Executive Director, Jet Airways, and Tay Kok Khiang, President, ST Aerospace in Singapore.

This Maintenance Agreement is expected to provide a high standard of maintenance quality with improvement in technical reliability and longer on-wing life of the engines.

The Agreement also encompasses the commissioning of an "Engine Hospital Shop" at Jet Airways' Hangar facility at Mumbai. The commissioning of this will enable India's premier airline and its subsidiary to maintain and service the engines of their Boeing 737 aircraft fleet.

London Luton airport-based Monarch Aircraft Engineering looks to have stolen SR Technics' thunder with its selection by Boeing as the airframe maintenance supplier for 787 GoldCare programme launch customer TUI Travel.
Sources close to the programme said at last week's MRO Americas exhibition in Phoenix that Monarch won the deal, announced on 13 April, at TUI's request. Boeing had selected SR as non-exclusive European GoldCare airframe maintenance provider as long ago as July 2006 but, sources say, the two have been embroiled in a dispute over contractual terms.

Now, SR is no longer listed as a GoldCare partner, although the Swiss company is thought to be continuing discussions with Boeing about joining the programme.

The TUI group is scheduled to begin taking delivery of 787s in early 2012, with 13 aircraft to be maintained by Monarch under GoldCare. Implementation of the GoldCare service will begin about 12 months before delivery. For each of its 787s, TUI has committed to GoldCare for 12 years, which is when the first heavy check for the 787 will be required.

Boeing says there is increased interest in GoldCare, which was launched in 2004, now that it has secured a launch customer and that the 787 test-flight programme has begun after several delays. "The whole market was really looking at when the airplane is going to fly. The delays we had in the programme slowed the pace down," it says.

"Now that we have TUI announced as the launch customer for GoldCare we really believe the market will become more attuned, more involved and more wanting to engage with GoldCare."
Boeing sees most GoldCare customers signing up about 18 months before first delivery. While GoldCare is now only available on the 787, Boeing expects to begin offering the lifecycle maintenance service on at least one other aircraft type later this year.

• du penchant de plus en plus fort d'Emirates & d'Etihad pour les gros porteurs d'Airbus (A380, A350-XWB, y compris la variante -1000, ..... même la possibilité de voir Emirates, dans un cas de besoin urgent de PUC, exercer l'option de faire le "roll-over" de sa flotte de A330....) plutôt que pour les actuels gros porteurs offerts par Boeing (même les B777-300ER, ..... au grand chagrin du partenariat Boeing / GE, pour toutes les raisons que nous avons déjà approfondies, et sur lesquelles nous n'avons plus besoin de revenir) ;
  


• du fait que Qatar avait déjà créé une perspective économique équilibrée entre les USA et l'UE dans la région (rien à tirer de ce côté-là, donc, étant donné, surtout, les retards accumulés et promesses non tenues / quasiment intenables avant longtemps, sur le dossier des 30 x B787 en commande ferme --30 options en sus -- à moteurs GEnx) ;
  


• du besoin d'implémenter rapidement leur stratégie d'apporter des activités à forte valeur ajoutée dans cette zone du globe, sur laquelle ils avaient tant misé (par exemple, l'activité de MRO, au bénéfice des acteurs américains) ;
  


• de la nécessité de développer vite les bases (durables) d'exploitation, visées dans les UAE, afin d'assurer les volumes des flux commerciaux / économiques vers et depuis les USA ;
  

• anticipation de l'impossibilité de DAE Capital d'honorer "à date" ses obligations (liées à ses commandes massives antérieures d'avions, avec transformation des monocouloirs -- B737 NG & Airbus famille A320-- en gros porteurs, qu'Emirates commanderait ; voir notre message ci-dessus) ;
  


• reconnaissance par les Américains :
  
• --- du besoin de jouer "gagnant-gagnant" / "donnant -donnant" (il faut admettre qu'Airbus soit servi en A380, étant donné que les moteurs de ces derniers "seront" (que Tim CLARK et / ou les AL-MAKTOUM le "souhaitent ou non ! ) des GP7200 de l'EA entre GE & P&W, ce qui est bon aux USA, pour la "balance commerciale"), ....
  
• --- et d'accepter que, de toutes façons, le B747-8I est le bide commercial par excellence, et commercialement 'mort-né' ;
  


• (sans prétendre qu'il y ait eu des contacts entre les Dirigeants des Pays ou des Entreprises à ce sujet ! ), ... mise au point des arguments, le cas échéant, pour convaincre Airbus (qui doit / devrait convaincre les "politiques" de l'UE et des pays membres de celle-ci), qu'il s'en sort bien, tout comme les USA, ses acteurs en MRO, ainsi que l'activité MRO de la région -- Dubai, et Abu DHABI / Etihad -- ce dernier ayant déjà réduit / ralenti ses plans pour cette activité, pour "jouer le jeu" de Dubai, dont le projet MRO était et demeure colossal, et accepté d'équiper ses A380 de moteurs GP7200 de l'EA pour soutenir ledit projet de Dubai ;
  


• la "négociation" (? : car, comme le dit CHEYENNE, ce n'est pas Tim CLARK qui a "négocié" cette affaire, ... quoique l'on dise ! ) de la commande de B777-300ER, ....
  
• --- qui ne correspond absolument pas aux besoins d'Emirates, "going forward", maintenant qu'Emirates a passé sa commande massive d'A350-XWB, .... mais qui, pendant un certain nombre d'années, bloquera les commandes futures d'Emirates en A350-XWB-1000, notamment (eh oui ; voilà le genre de saloperie qui vient polluer les eaux des affaires, dans ce genre de contexte) ;
  


• le besoin de reconnaître le fait (réel ou ptentiel) que RR soit "lésé" dans ce genre de perspective, .... d'où le soutien remarquable pour RR, donné par GE (et je n'ironise pas !) et d'autres Américains de bonne facture , dans le "lobbying" aux USA, en faveur du 2ème moteur (F136) qui devrait équiper les F-35, et qui est d'une autre dimension d'activité et de "rentabilité" économique (au sens large), sur une autre planète économique que quelques dizaines de moteurs RR Trent XWB ;
  


• la commande de 35 x B787 supplémentaires , passée par Etihad, à être équipés de moteurs GEnx, .... qui favorise Boeing , GE et l'activité MRO des UAE !
  

Distribution services provider Aerospace Products International and spare parts supplier Transworld Aviation FZE are to operate a 3,350m2 (35,000ft²) spare parts and maintenance centre at Transworld's headquarters in Dubai's Jebel Ali Free Zone.

Autre Forumiste a écrit: [/size]Bonjour Sevrien,
Merci pour cet éclaircissement.

Sevrien a écrit: [/size]C'est vrai que j'étais un peu surpris de l'avance du GP7200 sur le T900. Surtout cette phrase : "In reality, Rolls is coming in behind on every sales campaign."
Il faut oser la dire..

Sevrien a écrit:Lire ceci ! Je n'ai pas de parti pris, et je ne suis pas journaliste.

[/size]Abu Dhabi reinforced its ambitions to be a major aerospace player, signing at the show a major maintenance, repair and overhaul package with General Electric and launching plans to build an aerospace cluster at its second international airport, Al Ain.

Sevrien a écrit: Je n'invente rien ! je connais mes dossiers ! J'ai écrit longuement sur ce sujet, il y a légèrement moins de 3 ans !

Sevrien a écrit: Les faits. Il n'y a pas de DPO là -dedans!

Sevrien a écrit:Vous vous rappellerez l'aspect quasi culturel, que nous avons mentionné, concernant la "bonne distribution des engrais", chez / parmi les acteurs qui doivent générer et bénéficier de la croissance de la région !

Separately, another Mubadala division, Abu Dhabi Airports (ADAC), is to establish an aerospace industrial park in the emirate's second city, anchored by a Mubadala plant designing and building composite components for Airbus and other aero manufacturers. The partnership venture with EADS was announced last year.

At the show, Mubadala signed deals with a succession of European small and medium-enterprises which will open facilities at the 25km2 (9.7 miles2) park, including four German companies that are part of Bavarian aerospace cluster BavAIRia, Swiss rotary engine manufacturer Mistral Engines and two UK firms.
Beagle Aerospace will build a spares warehouse and eventually a composite repair facility, while Generation Metals International will supply aerospace metalics from the Al Ain site.

Sevrien a écrit:On voit bien l'effort constant et appuyé d'être accueillant et équitable ! Il convient de le féliciter !

Sevrien a écrit:Oui, la crise actuelle impose des priorités. Ensuite, certains projets, mis en "veilleuses" en ce moment, reprendront leurs pleines couleurs !

sevrien

Avalanche of Audits?

There’s a continuous, almost cacophonous, call out there today that commands commercial aircraft main-tainers to demonstrate compliance to regulators, customers and accrediting agencies. The chosen instrument is the audit, and some claim the industry is all but awash in them.
“Aeroman gets a lot of audits per year,” says Ernesto Ruiz, CEO of the El Salvador-based MRO. In 2009, it was 35 external audits; in 2008, the tally came to 23. The peak year was 2006, when regulators, customers and accrediting agencies conducted 53. “In the extreme,” says Ruiz, “what we’re experiencing is an audit a week, or an audit every other week.”
“Multiple audits by regulators and customers take place almost weekly,” says K.W. Nieh, group CEO of public relations for Evergreen Group, in a prepared statement. So frequent is the practice that “maintenance production lines at EVA [Airlines] and EGAT [Evergreen Aviation Technologies] are set up to accommodate audits every day.”
At TAP Maintenance & Engineering, the pace isn’t quite as pronounced, but it’s still telling: 24 external audits in 2009. “We feel there are too many,” contends Jorge Leite, TAP M&E’s quality director.
At Lufthansa Technik, the external audit tally was approximately 150 last year—some 50 conducted by regulatory authorities and about 100 by customers. British Airways’ Keith Rose, engineering general manager for training and training services, was “shocked” when he counted the total number of internal and external audits—some 800 for the 2009-10 fiscal year. Still, he declines to label the tally as too burdensome, even though it “sounds like a very big number.”
The numbers cited by these airlines and MROs indicate that audits of all ilk are increasing markedly. FAA defines an audit as “a structured and objective assessment of an operator to determine a level of conformity with the applicable…standards.” Based on that definition, “We use the words [audit and inspection] interchangeably,” says Carol Giles, manager of FAA’s Flight Standards Aircraft Division.
Giles says that in fiscal 2009, FAA conducted 78,385 audits of U.S. repair stations and 9,507 non-U.S. facilities. Look for the total to accelerate. When O&M talked with Giles in mid-June, she said during the first six months of the current fiscal year, the agency performed 53,657 U.S. audits and 7,182 non-U.S. audits. Should that pace continue—especially outside the U.S.—fiscal 2010 will eclipse fiscal 2009 activity by a substantial margin.

Time and Money
Accommodating the rising tide of auditors is no small task. It takes time and money. “There’s a cost that’s…not just in dollars and cents, but there’s a cost in time and resources,” says Dave Cann, VP of regulatory compliance for AAR. “If an airline sends one or two people into a repair station for two or three days, that repair station has an escort with them. Or, if they come in and they want to look through records, somebody has to get them records. If they want copies, somebody has to make them copies. Everybody has a price to pay.”
Dave Marcontell, president of TeamSAI M&E, agrees. “Wherever these audits and inspections take place, there are usually dedicated individuals assigned…to enable them to get the information they need,” he says. “It is not an insignificant cost.”
Other costs are more tangible. Different entities charge different rates, rates that MROs and airlines have to bear. “Every [EASA] audit costs us...something between €80,000-€90,000 a year,” says Samuel Ifergan, senior director of quality assurance for Israel Aerospace Industries’ Bedek Group. “The FAA is around $35,000-$40,000. The other authorities, they have different fees.” Where does the money go? Travel and certification expenses.
Part of this is simply the cost of growing the business. “The [cost] has been increasing, because TAP has gotten new certification,” says TAP’s Leite.

Surety Starts At Home
It’s easier to live with audits generated by growth than those emanating from other quarters. Marcontell says audit frequency varies as a function of lots of things: performance in the last audit, significant contractual changes or major operational changes. Addressing those issues should start with identifying them internally. American Airlines is a big believer in the premise. The carrier has three layers of staff who reinforce internal audits: designated people in the facility, independent auditors based at headquarters, and the carrier’s quality assurance organization.
“If the FAA were to go away tomorrow and none of these other [external] audits were ever to be done again, we’d still go about doing business the same way,” contends American spokesman Tim Wagner. He says internal audits really test the effectiveness of the airline’s M&E, that “what these other [external] audits do is validate what we’re doing.”
Oneworld partner British Airways “absolutely” agrees with Wagner’s contention, says Keith Rose. “When the authorities come in and audit us, the expectation is our own internal audit is robust enough to [have found] and dealt with any issue before.” And that means the in-house investigatory process “has to be robust.”
The internal audit ethic appears firmly rooted among many organizations. Lufthansa Technik performs some 150-180 internal audits per year. Two years ago, it was 250. The MRO set out to reduce the number of internal interrogatories while maintaining the quality. In 2009 and during the first five months of 2010, AAR executed 46 internal examinations. That’s a clip of approximately 9.2 per month.
While internal audits are terribly important, they’re not talismanic. They don’t mean outside auditors will automatically whip out magic wands and bless everything they behold.
“Sometimes people look for different things,” says AAR’s Cann. He should know. Before joining the MRO, he was aircraft maintenance division manager for FAA. That said, he believes “there are basics everybody looks at.” That set of basics is why many in this industry believe there’s a reasonable chance to reduce redundancy.

Closing in on Standardization?
Many call for more audit consolidation and standardization. They point to CASE as a case-in-point as to how the process can work. The Coordinated Aerospace Supplier Evaluation Association “was developed to try and cut down on [duplication],” says Cann, and to determine if “we’re getting anything from redundancy.”
Member carriers put auditors into a common “pot,” says Cann, where they’re certified to CASE standards. “If you’re a member of CASE, FAA can authorize you to take credit for a CASE audit,” he says. “Say the auditor happens to be from American Airlines. He comes in and does an audit [on an MRO].” United Airlines may work with the same MRO and “can take credit for that American Airlines audit because it was a CASE audit.”
CASE spokesman Ken Fleming says it’s “difficult” to nail down a specific number as to how many audits CASE has conducted, but his best estimate is 10,000-13,000 over the past 26 years. He says an air carrier “recognizing 200 audits accomplished by other members could potentially realize a tangible savings of $50,000-$60,000, minimum.”
It’s against this backdrop of mutual recognition of vendor audits that the International Air Transport Association wants to build on its successful IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) with a standardized MRO methodology. “IOSA carriers have a 59% lower accident rate than the rest of the world,” says Guenther Matschnigg, IATA’s senior VP of safety, operations and infrastructure. In the process, they’ve “saved about $70 million” by standardizing audits to which they’re subject.
IATA followed up IOSA with ISAGO, its safety audit program for ground operations.
Now, the organization wants to extend the concept to cover MROs. “After [we put] these two successful launches and audit systems in place, we [asked] ‘What can we do next?’” says Matschnigg. “There are so many maintenance audits. Many of those don’t add any value. It’s just audit after audit.”
Because of the growth in outsourcing, Matschnigg sees standardizing maintenance audits as the key piece of the auditing umbrella. “We have developed [a] white paper, a concept paper, as to how this will work. [IATA declines to provide the document at this point.] The next step is we will discuss this with the regulators…with EASA and the FAA. FAA indicated quite [a bit] of support for it.”
IATA says it has support not only from regulatory authorities, but from MROs, too. Singapore Technologies Aerospace spokeswoman Audrey Tan pretty much sums up the view of many MROs saying, “Having a common accredited standard…will lead to a reduction in overlapping audits, and the number of man-days [to] audit.”

Other Options
But for all the accolades, across-the-board audit standardization isn’t for everybody. And even those who like the idea admit it can’t cover everything.
“At EGAT, we don’t believe audits should be standardized,” says Nieh. “Audits require resources and could be viewed as overused or unnecessary. We gain fresh perspective on aircraft maintenance and operation from each of them. Multiple audits, all conducted by different auditors, increase our potential for continuous improvement.”
Among those who see standardization as part of the solution is TeamSAI’s Marcontell. Still, he contends there are times when it’s tough to devise a common template. “Because repairs stations are such a vast range of capabilities and types of things they’re doing, the nature of their operations…makes standardization very difficult.”
So, how about two audit templates: one for large MROs, the other for smaller vendors? “Philosophically [it works],” says Marcontell. “But, of course, the challenge is always the people in the middle.” Even within the same company, there are often site-specific variations, adding to the complexity. “It’s a real challenge,” says Marcontell. “Do you apply the same standard [because it’s] the same company?”
Others see regulatory standardization as next to intractable. “I don’t see the [number of regulatory audits decreasing] now,” says TAP M&E’s Leite. “I don’t see a chance over the next few years that we will really reduce [them] significantly,” concurs Lufthansa Technik’s Loss. “We would, of course, love if other regulators would accept EASA approval or FAA approval. Very few regulators do that.”
It’s not as if the regulatory arena is entirely devoid of reciprocity. “There are agreements between EASA and the FAA…where they accept our audits and we accept their audits,” says Cann, who quickly cautions that, “There are differences. When you evaluate…there’s a process articulated in the FAA orders, [by which FAA] does its regular, routine surveillance—and [there are] additional items required by EASA.”
FAA and EASA comprise the pillars upon which most maintenance regulations rest. That’s why people like Leite get frustrated when auditors from neighboring countries such as Argentina and Brazil show up with “regulatory requirements [that] are basically copies of the main FAA and EASA referentials. Essentially, we’re doing the same thing all over again throughout the year.”
Absent bilaterals that allow for regulatory reciprocity, “We try to exercise some efficiency,” says FAA’s Giles. In places such as Singapore, “we sometimes will join up with other civil aviation authorities to do an audit, and we can time [it] to be in there together. That way the two authorities are there at the same time, and not coming a week apart or a month apart.” Such ad hoc accommodations help to mitigate the cost MROs and carriers incur—mitigate, but not eliminate them.
No one wants that. Nor is anyone contending the current system doesn’t work, replete as it is with patience-rending repetition. The issue is: How deeply, how skillfully, can the industry reduce that repetition while maintaining core values? “Can I improve safety?” asks Cann. “That’s what everybody should be focused on.”

Spanish carrier Iberia's new maintenance, repair and overhaul facility at Barcelona El Prat Airport officially opened today and will begin operations next month.
Iberia announced in 2006 that it would invest €26 million ($36.2 million) in the construction of a new 26,000m² (280,000ft²) MRO facility at El Prat that would provide line maintenance, minor repairs and overhaul services.
The new facility will eventually employ 200 people.

An initial staff of 60 employees is currently undergoing training.
From next month, the new hangar will simultaneously carry out inspections on two aircraft, rising to three aircraft as its reaches full capacity.
The MRO facility is a joint project between Iberia and Barcelona Freeport Authority.

Paddy a écrit:Ouverture d'un nouveau centre de maintenance Iberia à Barcelone

A mettre dans le nouvel attelage avec BA

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]

Spanish carrier Iberia's new maintenance, repair and overhaul facility at Barcelona El Prat Airport officially opened today and will begin operations next month.
Iberia announced in 2006 that it would invest €26 million ($36.2 million) in the construction of a new 26,000m² (280,000ft²) MRO facility at El Prat that would provide line maintenance, minor repairs and overhaul services.
The new facility will eventually employ 200 people.

An initial staff of 60 employees is currently undergoing training.
From next month, the new hangar will simultaneously carry out inspections on two aircraft, rising to three aircraft as its reaches full capacity.
The MRO facility is a joint project between Iberia and Barcelona Freeport Authority.

Tout cela est cohérent, sur les plans économique, stratégique, technique & commercial !

Oil Prices Drive Parting Out Of Surplus Aircraft

An estimated 15-20 aircraft are being parted out—or dismantled and sold as parts—each month, and a new breed of surplus companies has emerged to take charge of that market, says Aerostrategy principal David Stewart.
Speaking at Aviation Week's MRO Middle East conference in Dubai yesterday, Stewart says the global maintenance, repair and overhaul market should be seeing the "kickback" of airline inventory restocking in 2011 and 2012, but it is being "buffered by the surplus [resulting from] parting out."
Like many other factors in MRO, the rate of parting out depends largely on fuel prices. With the price of oil hitting $100 a barrel at the end of January for the first time since 2008, it makes sense that disassembly work should peak.
The majority of airframes being disassembled and resold comprises mature types, such as Boeing 737 Classics, Bombardier CRJ-100s powered by CF34 engines and older Airbus A320s powered by CFM International CFM56-5A and IAE V2500-A1 engines. Most of this equipment is being broken down in the U.S., Stewart notes, though Europe is seeing a little bit of the work.
Third-party, specialized companies carry the aircraft through the parting-out process. "My sense is that airlines are selling planes, and they're being parted out by independent countries," Stewart says.
As this dismantling work is coming more into demand, he adds that the companies that specialize in it are getting smarter. He points to a new range of financially sophisticated management at surplus companies.
"They're getting much more astute in the way they manage their assets," Stewart notes, adding that one such strategy might be buying out an aircraft before its lease is up.

Younger Aircraft Being Disassembled For Parts

Hundreds of commercial transports will be disassembled and parted out this year to feed airline demand for lower-cost parts and components in the face of rising fuel prices. But unlike 10 or 15 years ago, when most of the airframes torn down had reached the end of their useful lives, increasingly younger aircraft now are seeing premature ends to their flying careers.
At the beginning of the decade, about 50 aircraft a year worldwide were disassembled for parts, according to Abdol Moabery, president and CEO of GA Telesis, who spoke at Aviation Week’s recent MRO Americas Conference & Exhibition. This year, GA Telesis alone expects to tear down 65 airframes, and Moabery thinks the global total likely will be 300-400 aircraft. Others in the industry say Moabery’s estimate may be on the high side, but it is clear that parting out is on the rise.
According to consultancy AeroStrategy, 80% of available surplus parts come from parted-out aircraft and the other 20% from excess airline inventory. The ratio just a few a years ago was 60/40, according to Kevin Michels, a founding partner of AeroStrategy. Air transport spending last year on surplus was about $2.3 billion and spending on new parts was $12.3 billion, the company reports.
Many of the aircraft being disassembled are not ready for the scrap heap. “Because of fuel prices, we are obsoleting aircraft sooner than expected,” says Michaels.
“When I got into this business, we just parted out old airplanes,” said Moabery. “You parted out a couple of airplanes a year and that was the business.”
But the business model has changed and so has the sophistication of the companies involved. “We really look at the market trends and fleets and the types we want to go after as opposed to what’s available,” Moabery said.
Among the aircraft Moabery says GA Telesis has or will part out this year are a Boeing 777, 757-200ERs and 767‑300ERs, a type coveted by passenger to freighter conversion operators, as well as Airbus A340s, new-generation A320s and A300-600s, an aircraft for which Airbus is developing an operational life-extension program. “We’re not just taking junk out of the desert,” he says.
Cost-conscious airlines are driving the demand for used parts and other alternatives to expensive new parts. According to some estimates, used/serviceable material can cost 30-40% less than new parts. Used parts with clean paperwork, particularly from engines, often are preferred by leasing companies over FAA parts manufacturer approval (PMA) items because sometimes it can be difficult moving engines equipped with PMA parts to new lessees.
But there are other factors at play as well.At least some of the recent increase in activity has been the result of airlines’ financial problems. For example, Japan Airlines decided to retire all of its Boeing 747-400s as part of its bankruptcy reorganization. As a result, a significant quantity of GE CF6-80C2 engine parts made their way onto the material market.
“The displacement of aircraft leads to opportunities for us to buy and disassemble those aircraft,” says Moabery.