While OEMs continue to push long-term engine service contracts, independents can be competitive on small turbine engines if they play their cards right.

After 18 months of subcontracting line maintenance to a local provider, Klaus Ren, president and CEO of Copenhagen-based Jet-Time A/S, had had enough. “Our vendor didn't perform as promised,” says Ren, noting that the provider has since folded. With seven Boeing 737-300s, Jet-Time now does all line work at its own hangar in Copenhagen. “By doing this inhouse, we can supervise our staff, which is dedicated to our own aircraft. You can’t count on that with an outside provider.”

For Canada’s WestJet, outsourcing deicing services has always been the preferred option. “It’s not our core business,” says Ian Anderson, the Calgary-based airline’s manager of ground icing and winter operations. “Calgary and Fort McMurray [Alberta] are our only stations where deicing and ground handling are done in-house. Calgary is our headquarters city, and at Fort McMurray, we had to step in when our contractor ceased operations there.”