FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2002
2002 - 2928.PDF
Maintenance Refurbishment work on idle aircraft has helped third-party maintenance companies survive the downturn of the past 12 months MICHAEL PHELAN / LONDON & DUBLIN Leasing companies are riding to the rescue of stricken European third-party maintenance companies, providing them with refurbish ment work on idle aircraft as busi ness from airlines has dried up since the US terrorist attacks on 11 September. "Non- critical modifications, such as passenger cabin upgrades and configuration changes, are being delayed," says Declan O'Shea, group vice-president and general manager of the region's biggest independent main tenance company FLS Aerospace (FLSA). "But there has been an increase in business from leasing companies, as returned aircraft are refurbished while lying idle or in prepa ration for new customers." Lufthansa Technik (LHT), sister com pany to Germany's flag carrier, says switch ing priorities has allowed it to survive the worst of the downturn. Director of corpo rate strategy Nikolaj Schmolcke says: "By concentrating on modern fleets and LHT says its engine types, the company has so far suf- modern fleet fered less than it might have." He says overhaul Pratt & Whitney JT8D-powered narrow- capability body fleets, such as Boeing 727s and early- has helped generation 737s and McDonnell Douglas keep the DC-9s, are bearing the brunt of the aircraft lights retirements, and that within LHT only burning Lufthansa Airmotive Ireland in Dublin now overhauls these engine types. O'Shea says airlines are delaying non essential work until their financial situa tion improves. FLSA is particularly feeling the impact of this strategy on the Airbus A330/A340 line at its Dublin facility, where O'Shea says last year non-essential cus tomer modifications accounted for far more work than the standard C checks required on the types. Improved throughput On the other hand, he says the improved throughput of leased aircraft is helping to lessen the effects of the airlines' cutbacks. Flight-hour based maintenance con tracts have been hit hard by the downturn, and LHT's Schmolcke highlights this as a major area of reduced revenue, conceding that revenues have been been "seriously affected". The reduction in size of the active airliner fleet has also had an obvi ous, if less publicised, knock-on effect on • ^^*" • ' •IBB 52 1-7 OCTOBER 2002 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
