We chart key recent market developments as part of our regular series of maintenance special reports
Lufthansa Technik has begun training personnel for its new maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in the Indian city of Hyderabad while also expanding several of its MRO businesses in other parts of Asia. Chief executive product and services Thomas Stuger says courses began on 3 September that will lead to qualifications for technicians and aircraft engineers for the new Hyderabad facility.
Boeing and Shanghai Airlines' new maintenance, repair and overhaul company in Shanghai will be undertaking Boeing 767 freighter conversion work within three years. Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice-president China operations John Bruns says the new MRO "will provide passenger-to-freighter conversions on 767s" starting in 2010.
Demand has soared for Air New Zealand Engineering Services (Anzes) VIP completions services over the past 12 months. The company also supplies design and installation engineering, but it is executive completions work that has seen the most growth.
The Ameco Beijing joint venture between Air China and Lufthansa is developing its reputation as a training provider and is set to grow its training facilities. Ameco Aviation College is the first CCAR Part 147 certificated training organisation in China, and was also the first outside of Europe to be awarded the EASA Part 147 certificate.
Shanghai Technologies Aerospace (STARCO), a China-based maintenance, repair and overhaul centre, plans to begin the construction of its Airbus A380-capable hangar at Shanghai's Pudong International airport by the end of the year. The company, a joint venture between Singapore Technologies Aerospace and China Eastern Airlines, aims to start operations at the facility in 2009.
Australia's Macquarie Bank has agreed to buy US company Goodrich's airframe heavy maintenance business. Goodrich says in a statement that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the business, Goodrich Aviation Technical Services, to Macquarie. Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed. Goodrich says it expects the sale to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
American Eagle Airlines is expanding its maintenance facility at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill, Arkansas. The regional sister of Oneworld alliance member American Airlines is investing $10 million in the expansion effort, which is driven in part by the recent addition of new regional service from the Arkansas facility to Miami, Florida Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina and Washington DC.
UK all-business carrier Silverjet has signed a long-term Boeing 767 maintenance support agreement with London Luton-based Monarch Aircraft Engineering. Silverjet's third 767 is being configured in an all-premium layout and will enter service on the airline's new Dubai route next month.
Singapore Airlines has inked a deal with Hamilton Sundstrand covering maintenance support for the auxiliary power units of its Airbus A380s. Hamilton Sundstrand says that its Power Systems division will provide spares support for up to 17 years under a deal that includes an asset management plan for the Pratt & Whitney Canada/Hamilton Sundstrand PW980 auxiliary power units.
Dutch regional carrier KLM Cityhopper has concluded an eight-year overhaul and maintenance agreement with Rolls-Royce covering the Tay engines powering its fleet of more than 40 Fokker 70s and 100s. Under the long-term deal, valued at more than $100 million, all full and mid-life engine overhauls will be the responsibility of Rolls-Royce. It will carry out the work at its East Kilbride aero repair and overhaul facility in Scotland, together with engineering support from Rolls-Royce Deutschland in Dahlewitz.
French investigators are recommending inspection of elevator cables on de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters after discovering severe fraying on the Air Moorea aircraft that crashed in French Polynesia during August. Investigatioin bureau BEA says that examination of the wreckage, following its retrieval from the sea off Moorea, shows that two stainless steel elevator control cables were heavily worn.
European aviation regulators are to hold a crisis meeting with Bombardier and Canadian authorities to discuss the airworthiness of the Q400 turboprop, as some of the largest operators of the type reaffirm their faith in the aircraft. The European Aviation Safety Agency is "concerned" about a recent Scandinavian Airlines gear-related landing accident at Copenhagen and any "possible relation" with other incidents involving the type.
Compiled by Antoine Fafard, Flight Insight analyst
Source: Flight International
