Panama Jack
15th Feb 2005, 03:47
Aeroman Gains U.S. Customers
By Carole Shifrin
02/14/2005 02:27:59 PM
If TACA Group's Aeroman needs any advertising for its heavy maintenance operation in El Salvador, it need only quote from its two most recent, and continuing, customers - America West Airlines and JetBlue Airways. Officials of the two carriers, which gave Aeroman some trial work on Airbus A320s in 2004, have signed up for major maintenance work in 2005 and have nothing but praise for the company.
"I do believe they're a gem," said Rick Oehme, America West's vice president for engineering and quality. "A lot of folks will be knocking on their door."
America West initially sent Aeroman two newly acquired used A320s for major overhaul and complete conversion to AWA fleet standards, including cockpit and interior changes and painting. Then it sent five A320s for C checks, followed by a Boeing 757 for a C check. "Since September, they have been doing nose-to-tail work for us," Oehme said.
As a result of its experience, America West expects to send between 15 and 20 aircraft, mostly A320s but a few A319s, to Aeroman for heavy C checks in 2005, consistently filling one of its four lines, said Oehme.
The bulk of America West's heavy maintenance needs will continue to be filled by TIMCO in Macon, Ga. The company, which the Phoenix-based airline has used for some time, will be doing nose-to-tail heavy maintenance on America West aircraft on three lines in 2005.
America West currently operates a fleet of 137 aircraft: 54 Airbus A320s, 33 A319s, 37 Boeing 737-300s and 13 Boeing 757-200s. The airline expects its fleet to grow to 148 aircraft by the end of 2005 and to 160 at the end of 2006. All the growth will be in A319s and A320s.
JetBlue, which sent eight A320s to Aeroman last year to evaluate its work, will send it 18 A320 aircraft in 2005 for what the airline calls its "C2" checks. "In rough terms, we're looking at sending a quarter of our 'C' events to TACA and the rest to Air Canada," said Dave Ramage, JetBlue's vice president of technical operations.
In assessing Aeroman, Ramage said JetBlue was looking for experience on the A320, capability and training, a reputation for quality and a record of meeting promised turntimes. "Culture is a very important thing for us," he added. JetBlue also looks at the relationship between management and staff and at a company's occupational health and safety record. Not on the list initially is price; only later is that discussed if JetBlue decides to go forward.
"They're a diamond in the rough," Ramage concluded. "It's almost like the best of the best. They do great work and they're hard to match on price." JetBlue currently operates 70 A320s and expects to take delivery of A320s at a rate of up to 17 aircraft per year until 2012. In 2005, it also will take delivery of the first seven of 100 Embraer 190s it has on order.
For Aeroman, gaining work from two successful U.S. A320 operators was the result of a concerted effort to attract business from North America to fill underused capacity at its four-bay facility in San Salvador. At one time, work on TACA aircraft accounted for 70% of its capacity. But then the airline decided to phase out its older, diverse aircraft and concentrate solely on A320s. After TACA retired its Boeing 737-200/300s, 767s and Airbus A300-B4s, the airline's work was expected to take up only 30% of Aeroman's capacity.
The timing of the TACA fleet change, prior to Sept. 11, 2001, also coincided generally with a change in the Argentinean economy that made it more attractive for Aerolineas Argentinas and Lapa, two of Aeroman's prime South American customers, to maintain their aircraft at home rather than send them north. "Suddenly we had all this capacity," said Ernesto Ruiz, Aeroman's general manager. "We knew the market was in North America, not South America, so we devised a strategy to try to penetrate the U.S. market." They also resolved to concentrate primarily on operators of the Airbus A320, the expertise they had built up with TACA.
"We also knew that it would be very difficult to convince a recognized carrier to come 'south of the border' to do their maintenance, even though they were sending widebodies to Asia," Ruiz added. "It was a matter of trying to convince them we could provide them with the same or better quality, that we were able to turn airplanes in less time, and that they could take advantage of our lower maintenance cost."
Ruiz said Aeroman was lucky to engage both America West and JetBlue at the same time to bring down airplanes as a trial. "The results are obvious," he said, referring to their follow-on business. "We turned the aircraft ahead of schedule, with excellent quality, and at a much lower cost."
America West's Oehme said he was first approached by TACA's former CEO, the late Federico Bloch, to consider bringing work to El Salvador but he, like others at America West, had a perception that sending work out of the country, and particularly to Latin America, would not be well received. There also was an expectation that you wouldn't get the same level of quality as in North America, he added.
Oehme said Bloch told him that this was the perception everyone had, and that TACA Aeroman knew it had to be a notch better to be perceived as equally as good as anyone else.
Spurred on, Oehme decided to visit Aeroman with a small team and started to be impressed onboard the TACA flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to San Salvador, both with the condition of TACA's A320 and its people. When they got to Aeroman, the team was again impressed with how clean, organized and productive the facility was and how efficient their people were. "We were overwhelmed," he said. "We came back convinced sending work down there was the right thing to do."
It was still "a difficult sell," he said, but when the airline acquired three used A320s, it decided to send one of the three to TIMCO and two to Aeroman as a trial, or beta test. America West's technical staff overseeing the work in El Salvador were impressed - a word Oehme used repeatedly to describe Aeroman - and the aircraft came out on time and flew reliably. "They're very honest, conscientious, productive and technically they are excellent," Oehme said. "And the labor rate? That's only an added benefit."
Oehme's overall conclusion: "Our experience is they are better than what we have experienced here in the States."
Value of Partnerships
Both Oehme and Ramage speak of the value of having multiple business partners in the maintenance area and both call their dealings with MROs "partnerships."
For JetBlue, even though it has a six-year contract with Air Canada Technical Services for heavy maintenance - and is very happy with the quality of its work and turntimes - the airline philosophically doesn't want to have "all our eggs in one basket," Ramage said. "A little competition" keeps people "on their toes," he believes.
Oehme has the same view. "I'm not sure giving all business to one vendor is healthy for us, or healthy for the vendor either," he said. Knowing the airline has another maintenance partner means each company seeks to hold itself to a higher standard, he said. "We've learned you can send too much work to one vendor, overload them and break the system," he said. "To give more would add risk."
Oehme said America West has a "true partnership" with TIMCO and he doesn't want to jeopardize that. "But we decided also to try someone else to make sure what we do is the right thing, and validate what they do in Georgia."
With three lines pretty much filled with TACA, America West and JetBlue aircraft, Aeroman now is seeking to reopen its fourth line, shut down after Sept. 11. Ruiz said Aeroman will reopen it sometime in 2005, probably in the second half of the year, so that it is well prepared for more work. "Our philosophy is we will never offer to do work if we are not totally sure we can meet quality, time and cost standards," he said. "Customers are happy to know that if we offer something, we will be able to deliver."
Ruiz said Aeroman could well expand its services further by adding more production lines at some point in the future.
Aeroman also now declines work on Airbus A300s and Boeing 727s. "There is a strong possibility that we will concentrate only on the A320s," Ruiz said. "Right now there is a lot of potential market in the U.S., and we want to be known as a center of excellence." He added, however, that although Aeroman is concentrating on the A320, it will not close the doors on 757 work. (Keep in mind America West operates 13 Boeing 757s.)
Andres Garcia, Aeroman's commercial director, said the company's first intention is to strengthen its relationships with America West and JetBlue. But it also foresees strong growth in A320 operations in the North American market and expects new customers to be attracted to Aeroman, because it has been maintaining A320s since 1989. "We believe we're at the right time with the right type of strategy to focus on the A320," he said. "It's important to be focused on one thing and be very good at it."
TACA's operations also are a selling point, with Airbus statistics showing the airline's A320 fleet with well above average reliability and its annual A320 maintenance spend considerably below the level Airbus predicts, Ruiz said. TACA also ranks extremely high in block-hour utilization, on-time performance and schedule completion.
Among factors Ruiz cites in Aeroman's favor is the closeness of the facility to North America (Oehme said flights from Phoenix to El Salvador or Macon take the same amount of time). Since it has been maintaining TACA A320s for so long, it has a substantial amount of rotables available to customers. Also, Aeroman is located on a tax-free zone, avoiding both taxes or fees on incoming parts and customs paperwork for incoming or outgoing aircraft. "It means when a customer flies down to El Salvador, the aircraft can come directly to the apron at the hangar, and we can start working on the airplane the minute it arrives," Ruiz said.
One feature the MRO offers airlines is to track an aircraft for 50 cycles after it emerges from heavy maintenance to make sure Aeroman is improving the quality of the aircraft. If the airline compares the tracking with the aircraft's reliability statistics for the 50 cycles previous to the C check, it has the added value of unique information on aircraft performance, Garcia said. "The true success of this is when you work together with business partners and openly share information and concerns about the maintenance process," he added. "If you are truly partners, that's where improvements in the relationship happen."
Aeroman is certified by the FAA and JAA and civil aviation authorities of 13 other, mostly Latin American, countries. In December, it was the first MRO in the Americas to be granted certification by the new European Aviation Safety Agency.
This article appeared in Overhaul & Maintenance's January/February 2005 issue.
Link to Article (http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_om_story.jsp?id=news/om0105tac.xml)
By Carole Shifrin
02/14/2005 02:27:59 PM
If TACA Group's Aeroman needs any advertising for its heavy maintenance operation in El Salvador, it need only quote from its two most recent, and continuing, customers - America West Airlines and JetBlue Airways. Officials of the two carriers, which gave Aeroman some trial work on Airbus A320s in 2004, have signed up for major maintenance work in 2005 and have nothing but praise for the company.
"I do believe they're a gem," said Rick Oehme, America West's vice president for engineering and quality. "A lot of folks will be knocking on their door."
America West initially sent Aeroman two newly acquired used A320s for major overhaul and complete conversion to AWA fleet standards, including cockpit and interior changes and painting. Then it sent five A320s for C checks, followed by a Boeing 757 for a C check. "Since September, they have been doing nose-to-tail work for us," Oehme said.
As a result of its experience, America West expects to send between 15 and 20 aircraft, mostly A320s but a few A319s, to Aeroman for heavy C checks in 2005, consistently filling one of its four lines, said Oehme.
The bulk of America West's heavy maintenance needs will continue to be filled by TIMCO in Macon, Ga. The company, which the Phoenix-based airline has used for some time, will be doing nose-to-tail heavy maintenance on America West aircraft on three lines in 2005.
America West currently operates a fleet of 137 aircraft: 54 Airbus A320s, 33 A319s, 37 Boeing 737-300s and 13 Boeing 757-200s. The airline expects its fleet to grow to 148 aircraft by the end of 2005 and to 160 at the end of 2006. All the growth will be in A319s and A320s.
JetBlue, which sent eight A320s to Aeroman last year to evaluate its work, will send it 18 A320 aircraft in 2005 for what the airline calls its "C2" checks. "In rough terms, we're looking at sending a quarter of our 'C' events to TACA and the rest to Air Canada," said Dave Ramage, JetBlue's vice president of technical operations.
In assessing Aeroman, Ramage said JetBlue was looking for experience on the A320, capability and training, a reputation for quality and a record of meeting promised turntimes. "Culture is a very important thing for us," he added. JetBlue also looks at the relationship between management and staff and at a company's occupational health and safety record. Not on the list initially is price; only later is that discussed if JetBlue decides to go forward.
"They're a diamond in the rough," Ramage concluded. "It's almost like the best of the best. They do great work and they're hard to match on price." JetBlue currently operates 70 A320s and expects to take delivery of A320s at a rate of up to 17 aircraft per year until 2012. In 2005, it also will take delivery of the first seven of 100 Embraer 190s it has on order.
For Aeroman, gaining work from two successful U.S. A320 operators was the result of a concerted effort to attract business from North America to fill underused capacity at its four-bay facility in San Salvador. At one time, work on TACA aircraft accounted for 70% of its capacity. But then the airline decided to phase out its older, diverse aircraft and concentrate solely on A320s. After TACA retired its Boeing 737-200/300s, 767s and Airbus A300-B4s, the airline's work was expected to take up only 30% of Aeroman's capacity.
The timing of the TACA fleet change, prior to Sept. 11, 2001, also coincided generally with a change in the Argentinean economy that made it more attractive for Aerolineas Argentinas and Lapa, two of Aeroman's prime South American customers, to maintain their aircraft at home rather than send them north. "Suddenly we had all this capacity," said Ernesto Ruiz, Aeroman's general manager. "We knew the market was in North America, not South America, so we devised a strategy to try to penetrate the U.S. market." They also resolved to concentrate primarily on operators of the Airbus A320, the expertise they had built up with TACA.
"We also knew that it would be very difficult to convince a recognized carrier to come 'south of the border' to do their maintenance, even though they were sending widebodies to Asia," Ruiz added. "It was a matter of trying to convince them we could provide them with the same or better quality, that we were able to turn airplanes in less time, and that they could take advantage of our lower maintenance cost."
Ruiz said Aeroman was lucky to engage both America West and JetBlue at the same time to bring down airplanes as a trial. "The results are obvious," he said, referring to their follow-on business. "We turned the aircraft ahead of schedule, with excellent quality, and at a much lower cost."
America West's Oehme said he was first approached by TACA's former CEO, the late Federico Bloch, to consider bringing work to El Salvador but he, like others at America West, had a perception that sending work out of the country, and particularly to Latin America, would not be well received. There also was an expectation that you wouldn't get the same level of quality as in North America, he added.
Oehme said Bloch told him that this was the perception everyone had, and that TACA Aeroman knew it had to be a notch better to be perceived as equally as good as anyone else.
Spurred on, Oehme decided to visit Aeroman with a small team and started to be impressed onboard the TACA flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to San Salvador, both with the condition of TACA's A320 and its people. When they got to Aeroman, the team was again impressed with how clean, organized and productive the facility was and how efficient their people were. "We were overwhelmed," he said. "We came back convinced sending work down there was the right thing to do."
It was still "a difficult sell," he said, but when the airline acquired three used A320s, it decided to send one of the three to TIMCO and two to Aeroman as a trial, or beta test. America West's technical staff overseeing the work in El Salvador were impressed - a word Oehme used repeatedly to describe Aeroman - and the aircraft came out on time and flew reliably. "They're very honest, conscientious, productive and technically they are excellent," Oehme said. "And the labor rate? That's only an added benefit."
Oehme's overall conclusion: "Our experience is they are better than what we have experienced here in the States."
Value of Partnerships
Both Oehme and Ramage speak of the value of having multiple business partners in the maintenance area and both call their dealings with MROs "partnerships."
For JetBlue, even though it has a six-year contract with Air Canada Technical Services for heavy maintenance - and is very happy with the quality of its work and turntimes - the airline philosophically doesn't want to have "all our eggs in one basket," Ramage said. "A little competition" keeps people "on their toes," he believes.
Oehme has the same view. "I'm not sure giving all business to one vendor is healthy for us, or healthy for the vendor either," he said. Knowing the airline has another maintenance partner means each company seeks to hold itself to a higher standard, he said. "We've learned you can send too much work to one vendor, overload them and break the system," he said. "To give more would add risk."
Oehme said America West has a "true partnership" with TIMCO and he doesn't want to jeopardize that. "But we decided also to try someone else to make sure what we do is the right thing, and validate what they do in Georgia."
With three lines pretty much filled with TACA, America West and JetBlue aircraft, Aeroman now is seeking to reopen its fourth line, shut down after Sept. 11. Ruiz said Aeroman will reopen it sometime in 2005, probably in the second half of the year, so that it is well prepared for more work. "Our philosophy is we will never offer to do work if we are not totally sure we can meet quality, time and cost standards," he said. "Customers are happy to know that if we offer something, we will be able to deliver."
Ruiz said Aeroman could well expand its services further by adding more production lines at some point in the future.
Aeroman also now declines work on Airbus A300s and Boeing 727s. "There is a strong possibility that we will concentrate only on the A320s," Ruiz said. "Right now there is a lot of potential market in the U.S., and we want to be known as a center of excellence." He added, however, that although Aeroman is concentrating on the A320, it will not close the doors on 757 work. (Keep in mind America West operates 13 Boeing 757s.)
Andres Garcia, Aeroman's commercial director, said the company's first intention is to strengthen its relationships with America West and JetBlue. But it also foresees strong growth in A320 operations in the North American market and expects new customers to be attracted to Aeroman, because it has been maintaining A320s since 1989. "We believe we're at the right time with the right type of strategy to focus on the A320," he said. "It's important to be focused on one thing and be very good at it."
TACA's operations also are a selling point, with Airbus statistics showing the airline's A320 fleet with well above average reliability and its annual A320 maintenance spend considerably below the level Airbus predicts, Ruiz said. TACA also ranks extremely high in block-hour utilization, on-time performance and schedule completion.
Among factors Ruiz cites in Aeroman's favor is the closeness of the facility to North America (Oehme said flights from Phoenix to El Salvador or Macon take the same amount of time). Since it has been maintaining TACA A320s for so long, it has a substantial amount of rotables available to customers. Also, Aeroman is located on a tax-free zone, avoiding both taxes or fees on incoming parts and customs paperwork for incoming or outgoing aircraft. "It means when a customer flies down to El Salvador, the aircraft can come directly to the apron at the hangar, and we can start working on the airplane the minute it arrives," Ruiz said.
One feature the MRO offers airlines is to track an aircraft for 50 cycles after it emerges from heavy maintenance to make sure Aeroman is improving the quality of the aircraft. If the airline compares the tracking with the aircraft's reliability statistics for the 50 cycles previous to the C check, it has the added value of unique information on aircraft performance, Garcia said. "The true success of this is when you work together with business partners and openly share information and concerns about the maintenance process," he added. "If you are truly partners, that's where improvements in the relationship happen."
Aeroman is certified by the FAA and JAA and civil aviation authorities of 13 other, mostly Latin American, countries. In December, it was the first MRO in the Americas to be granted certification by the new European Aviation Safety Agency.
This article appeared in Overhaul & Maintenance's January/February 2005 issue.
Link to Article (http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_om_story.jsp?id=news/om0105tac.xml)