Jennifer Pite/LONDON
IN THE USA, many providers of third-party maintenance are having a difficult time. Significantly, however, Sabretech has leased the ex-Page Avjet site in Orlando, Florida, and is planning to offer heavy maintenance and modifications, initially for Boeing 737s and Lockheed L-1011 TriStars, from mid-August 1996. Later, the company plans to use the 9,530m2 (102,600ft2) site for Boeing 727, McDonnell Douglas MD-80, DC-10 and MD-11 maintenance. Sabretech was created in 1995, when Sabreliner acquired DynAir Tech, which had sites at Arizona, Florida and Texas.
Mike Heiny of Stambugh's Air Service, says that the maintenance business is "tough at the moment", but that the airlines are doing well.
The fall-out from the ValuJet MDC DC-9 crash in Florida in May has had a "ripple" effect, and Heiny has noticed that smaller established operators have decided that quality maintenance is a worthwhile price to pay as opposed to visiting "chop shops".
In Canada, Kelowna Flightcraft is concentrating on developing niche markets, such as its highly successful Convair maintenance/conversion business, rather than competing head-on with low-cost providers elsewhere in Canada and the USA. It also overhauls 727s, most of which it operates itself.
According to Barry Lapointe, president of Kelowna, the "biggest problem" is that customers would often have to ferry their aircraft 925-1,850km (500-1,000nm) to reach its site. "Our labour costs are 30% higher than those of some of the US companies," he adds.
Lapointe notes that, despite the fact that some 300 Convair 340s, 440s, 580s and stretched 5800s are still being flown, "-there aren't many people that specialise in Convairs". Kelowna is now overhauling 20-25 aircraft annually.
While Kelowna manages to charge realistic prices for its Convair work, however, there is continuing pressure on costs, with "-insurance liability getting to be quite high", according to Lapointe.
In Mexico Aeromexico says, that its code-share and blocked-space agreements with Alaska, America West, Delta and Japan is providing customers. It has sites in Mexico City and Guadalajara and, as well as providing heavy maintenance on McDonnell Douglas DC-8s, DC-9s, MD-80s and DC-10s and Boeing 767s and 757s, it provides services such as pollution control.
Source: Flight International
