Monarch Aircraft Engineering is confident that the UK's high labour rates can be overcome as it seeks to build its Boeing 787 maintenance business.
As a partner in Boeing's GoldCare support programme, the maintenance provider has already been selected to maintain TUI Travel's 13 787s, the first of which is due to arrive in January 2012.
While the traditional 80:20 split between labour and material costs in base maintenance has made it difficult for Monarch Aircraft Engineering to compete on price, that split is closer to 60:40 on the 787, says the company's sales and marketing director Derek Gibson, who addressed reporters at Aviation Week's MRO Europe show today.
Expensive materials deployed in the new type are a factor in the shift.
Furthermore, the European Union's emissions trading scheme scheduled for implementation in 2012 will make airlines more reluctant to ferry aircraft long distances to low-cost regions for C checks, says Gibson.
Growth in fuel prices would be a further disincentive to fly empty.
TUI's 787s will be operated by its subsidiary carriers Thomson Airways, Tuifly Nordic, Jetairfly and Arkefly.
Monarch Aircraft Engineering's own parent airline is to receive its first of six 787s in 2013. It operates maintenance facilities in Luton and Manchester.
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Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
