Europe's key MRO facilities in air transport. (MRO Industry).
AAR AIRCRAFT COMPONENT SERVICES (unit of AAR Corp, USA) 35 Willow Lane, Mitcham, Surrey CR4 4UQ, UK Facility location(s): Mitcham, UK and Hoofdorp, The Netherlands Tel: +44 20 8640 2225 Fax: +44 20 8640 2855 Web site: www.aarcorp.com Activities: repair and overhaul of instruments, avionics, electrical, pneumatics, fuel, hydraulics...

Sky's the liability limit: using personal aircraft for business purposes saves time but exposes an employer to soaring liability and higher insurance costs, many risk managers say.
Each day millions of middle managers scurry to airports, board commercial jets and fly off on business. Thousands of others, instead of boarding a commercial aircraft, fly their own plane for business. Or, they sometimes rent. As part of the general aviation sector, which numbers about 211,000...

Commercial aviation industry hovering on the brink.
With the ageing Russian commercial transport fleet crying out for renewal, the entire Russian aviation industry produced and sold a grand total of four new aircraft last year. Any consideration of the Russian commercial-aviation sector must include the complex, integrated structure that links design bureaux, manufacturing plants,...

MRO sector pursues cost, reliability goals: despite good global market growth prospects, barriers to entry will remain high.
One of the results of the spate of airline accidents this summer was to focus attention on the role played by the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) sector--in-house airline shops, independent providers and the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)--in maintaining commercial transport aircraft in a safe condition. However,...

PAL to buy planes, expand US routes and resume Europe flights.
The country's leading carrier, Philippine Airlines (PAL) will buy or lease eight wide-bodied airplanes to expand its routes to the United States or Canada and resume services to Europe. Dr. Lucio Tan, PAL chairman said, PAL will invest at least $200 million each for the planes which...

Turning liabilities into assets.
Massive orders from leasing companies keep grabbing the headlines. The latest GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) blockbuster covers 150 firm orders for Bombardier CRJs, Embraer ERJ-170s and Fairchild 728JETs, with a further 300 options, for a total of 450 regional jets, evenly split between the manufacturers. Perhaps unsurprisingly all...

Getting tougher all the time: the aftermath of Sept 11 is going to make life difficult for the entire MRO sector; the smaller third-party providers look particularly vulnerable. (Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul)(Cover Story).
As recently as this summer, MRO providers -- unlike the airlines -- were giving the impression that they had escaped the impact of the global economic slowdown. Business was still brisk, workshops were full, expansion plans and projects were continuing unabated, and full employment was the order of the...

Capstone test ATC transponder of the future.
The FAA is launching a major evaluation of ADS-B, but the benefits could still be several years away. In Alaska this Spring, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will launch the largest evaluation of the Automatic Dependent Surveillance System - Broadcast (ADSB) concept that has yet been...

Hush kits don't work. (North America).
US -- The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) now requires fitting new commercial aircraft weighing 75,000 pounds or more with "hush-kits" -- the common name for sound-deadening equipment -- to reduce engine noise during takeoff and landing. The Airports Council International-North America (ACI) [1775 K Street, NW, Suite 500, Washington,...

Boeing Delivers Milestone Jetliner to GECAS / XL Airways.
TRAVEL AND LEISURE CLOSE-UP-19 May 2008-Boeing Delivers Milestone Jetliner to GECAS / XL Airways(C)2008 - CloseUpMedia - newsdesk@closeupmedia.com The Boeing Company and GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS) announced the delivery of the leasing company's 300th Boeing jetliner, a Next-Generation 737-900ER (Extended Range) airplane, which GECAS customer XL...