As the Airbus A380 nears its 10th anniversary of service entry, and demand for heavy checks increases, the airframer is building partnerships with selected MRO specialists in an effort to expand maintenance capacity for the ultra-large type's comparatively small fleet.
Emirates operates almost half of the active fleet and has the largest share of Airbus's order backlog for the A380. As the Gulf carrier services its fleet in-house, the number of aircraft accessible to other MRO providers is reduced, which makes investment to expand maintenance capacity a less attractive proposition.
In November 2016, Airbus tentatively recruited Etihad Airways Engineering as a partner to conduct A380 maintenance for third-party customers. Earlier in 2016, the manufacturer had formed a joint venture with Singapore Airlines' engineering arm to provide heavy checks for A330s, A350s and A380s.
Further partnerships with MROs are planned to support the A380 fleet, Airbus tells FlightGlobal. But the manufacturer insists there is no shortage of heavy-maintenance capacity for its flagship type.
However, an A380 operator has told FlightGlobal that finding vacant heavy-maintenance slots for the aircraft has been a challenge.
Lufthansa, for its part, has directed heavy checks for some of its A380s away from its maintenance division's facility in Manila – Lufthansa Technik's principal location for A380 heavy checks – partly because that site lacked capacity during the required timeframe.
During the winter 2015-16 period, Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP) completed 3C-checks – or intermediate layovers, which are scheduled after six years of operation – on two of the parent's 14-strong A380 fleet, while a third aircraft was serviced by SIA Engineering in Singapore.
LTP specialises in airframe maintenance of Airbus models and serves a range of A380 operators, including Asiana Airlines and Qantas. A long-term contract with British Airways to support its A380 fleet was won in 2016, and LTP has supported Air France A380s in the past too.
But for the winter 2016-17 timetable, LHT allocated the next round of 3C-checks for Lufthansa's fleet to its headquarters in Hamburg. The three aircraft in question were, it turned out, among the last to undergo scheduled heavy maintenance there as LHT revealed late last year a decision to terminate aircraft overhauls at the site in 2017.
Airbus's head of A380 programme support, Christian Fremont, says the manufacturer has been monitoring the fleet since service entry with the aim of ensuring enough maintenance capacity is available as the fleet matures. Since regular checks are being scheduled over set timeframes, the manufacturer and operators know in advance what capacities will be required. "Up to now, we didn't have any issues [or] problems of lacking MROs for supporting major layovers on A380s," says Fremont.
At the end of 2016, some 11 maintenance providers were capable of completing C-checks for A380s, Airbus information indicates. These are mainly technical departments of the aircraft's operators, such as Air France Industries, Emirates Engineering and Korean Air's maintenance division. But the list also includes Elbe Flugzeugwerke – Airbus's German-based modification joint venture with ST Aerospace – and Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering, which is part-owned by A380 operator China Southern Airlines.
A further three or four maintenance providers will be added to the group in 2017, says Airbus's head of services marketing and business development, Serge Panabiere. "In anticipation with the market request, we will continue to strengthen the capacity and partner with [MRO] companies," he says. "We have planned [capacity increases] for 2017 and we have planned for 2018. It is not a reactive mode, it is really a proactive mode... to avoid a capacity shortage."
Ameco Beijing is not part of the group today, but might be a suitable candidate for co-operation. The joint venture between Air China and Lufthansa has a hangar that can accommodate four A380s; and it completed A380 wing-rib modifications on Airbus's behalf in the past, as one of four manufacturer-appointed MROs. But today, Ameco does not list A380 base-maintenance capabilities on its website.
All of the hangars at Emirates Engineering's sprawling base in Dubai can accommodate A380s, and the carrier naturally has extensive experience with the type. But Emirates has in the past told FlightGlobal it has no intention of conducting airframe checks for third-party customers.
INVESTMENT TO EXPAND MAINTENANCE CAPACITY
Airbus's partnerships with SIA Engineering and Etihad Airways Engineering have so far not led to additional hangar space for A380s. Both already serviced the type at their facilities before the tie-ups with Airbus. However, the manufacturer says it has made investments in training, tooling and spare parts that have expanded heavy-maintenance capacity for the entire fleet. "We recognise that Etihad already had experience with [A380] maintenance. [But] being ready for the 3C-check is a different story," Panabiere says. "Even though we are playing with very well-known companies and MROs, we have brought up the capacity to a level which was not the same as [2015's]."
Panabiere indicates that financial support by Airbus is necessary to expand maintenance capacity for the A380 fleet. He says a "fair balance between needs and resources" is required to ensure enough capacity is available on the market. "It is... about having maximum capacity everywhere to absorb any surge of workload, which is quite difficult to do, because it is a lot of money [that needs to be] invested."
This raises the question whether MRO providers have been reluctant to make the required investments on their own in view of the limited business opportunities for the comparatively small A380 fleet. With the exception of All Nippon Airways – which in 2016 confirmed a three-unit order – operators have selected maintenance providers for their A380s. Furthermore, as both the number of A380 operators and the number of aircraft per airline are relatively small – excepting Emirates' fleet – there appears limited scope for MRO providers to generate scale efficiencies.
Meanwhile, the aircraft's size demands more resources – such as large technician teams and specialised tooling – than for other types. The 3C-check, in particular, covers cabin maintenance and requires the removal of interior equipment. Such efforts on the A380 are equivalent to servicing two conventional widebodies. And, Fremont argues, airlines tend to pay special attention to high cabin standards on their A380s as the aircraft is seen as a flagship of their fleets.
LTP vice-president marketing and sales Rainer Janke tells FlightGlobal that "the A380 [MRO] market will continue to remain a niche market in the long term" as a result of Emirates' large fleet share not being accessible for third-party maintenance specialists. He adds that there may be opportunities for cabin modifications on aircraft with expiring lease contracts, if new operators can be found for such aircraft.
AFI and LHT both set up their purpose-built A380 hangars – at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt, respectively – such that they could be expanded, but this has not yet happened.
Janke says the A380 base-maintenance market will be characterised by "limited growth" over coming years, and that this will be driven mostly by increased heavy-check demand for an ageing fleet. Meanwhile, he adds, "capacity demand for structural modifications [such as mandated work on cabin doors and flap track fairings] will continue to be high".
NO SPECIAL TREATMENT
Asked whether Airbus was forced to make investments for the expansion of A380 maintenance capacity because the market would not by itself provide enough, Fremont responds that "it is in the DNA of Airbus to accompany the customers" throughout a product's lifecycle. He acknowledges that no such investment was required for the A320 family, because a wide range of aftermarket players – such as MROs, spare-parts suppliers and lessors – was available as a result of that family's large fleet size and long production run, plus the fact that narrowbodies tend to change between operators more frequently than larger types. The situation is different for widebodies, Fremont suggests. "On the long-range and on the A380, I think the customers expect more from us," he says, adding: "There is no specific process for the A380."
Closer co-operation between manufacturers and MRO providers has been a trend for some time, as OEMs target a bigger slice of the aftermarket business. Airlines and manufacturers arrange long-term service agreements as part of aircraft acquisitions, and maintenance companies form partnerships with OEMs to gain access to repair know-how for new-generation equipment.
Limited business opportunities in the A380 MRO market have been a reason that operators and maintenance providers have teamed up with Airbus to support the type, Panabiere concedes. But he argues that "there are a lot of different factors". For example, some airlines want to concentrate on core air transport operations, while others are opting to outsource maintenance for new-generation aircraft until support for that equipment has become more widely established.
In the aircraft-painting arena, Airbus admits there has been a capacity shortage for the A380. It says: "A380 paint capacities offer could not match the expectations of our customers in the recent past." This is echoed by LTP's Janke. "In the medium term, the market requires additional painting capacity," he says. "But the investment requirement is too high, considering the market potential."
Airbus says it has "encouraged" several paint specialists to build hangars for the A380. Three service providers will open A380 paint facilities in 2017, and a fourth will join that group in 2018, says Fremont. One of these companies is the aircraft storage and dismantling specialist Tarmac Aerosave, which is co-owned by Airbus, Safran and French waste-management firm Sita. But Fremont says the others are independent companies and that "we are not speaking of partnerships or JVs" with Airbus.
EVENT HORIZONS
In order to gain further efficiencies in the support of the A380 fleet, Airbus is making efforts to increase intervals between scheduled checks and thus reduce the number of required maintenance events per aircraft. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has already approved increasing the interval between A-checks by 250h to 1,000h. Now, Airbus is targeting an increase in C-check intervals, from two to three years.
Today, A380 operators need to complete two C-checks before an intermediate layover, or C3-check: after six years of service, and again after 12 years. If the planned C-check interval increase is approved, operators will need to complete only a single C-check before the intermediate layover. This would not only raise efficiency for operators but, perhaps more significantly for MRO providers, vacate maintenance capacity for A380 MRO.
Airbus says the maintenance programme escalation is partly a result of a "low findings rate" during checks on the existing fleet. The omission of a C-check during a six-year cycle will not be a trade-off that leads to intensification of other base-maintenance events, the manufacturer stresses. "We don't expect to have more work during the two remaining C-checks, because what we are doing is expanding the interval between the tasks rather than just splitting the work."
The engineers in Toulouse expect that EASA approval for the C-check interval increase will be granted by early 2018.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
