American fills paint shops into 2016 with livery changes

As airlines continue to watch engine expenses, MROs are being asked by their customers to design customized approaches to service and provide material solutions. The conversation is forcing MRO vendors to search for answers outside their facilities.“A decade ago, the focus of engine maintenance contracts was on supporting the customer—at the time of the shop visit,” says Kristin Kenny, director of Pay Per Hour Programs for Pratt & Whitney Canada. “Now, contracts must be structured to take into account a complete understanding of the customer's operation.”

Boeing and Airbus have backlogs bulging with orders and would like to see production rates increase. The question is can their supply chains meet the schedule and quality marks needed. “We have to think through whether we want to go for higher rates,” Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner said as the Paris air show got underway last week. Airbus is in the same cautious position of not wanting to let its desire for higher rates exceed its supply chain's capacity. Still, the pressure to get aircraft out the door faster is relentless.

Last week's delivery of a Superjet 100 to its first Western customer—Interjet—was to be celebrated as the international breakthrough for the Russian-build regional aircraft. But now Finmeccanica, Sukhoi's partner in the Superjet International joint venture, is threatening to pull out.

President Barack Obama's Brandenburg Gate call to eliminate up to a third of the U.S. nuclear arsenal has few ardent champions. And the remaining discontent may matter, since the cuts aren't likely to materialize while Obama is still in office. Republicans denounce the plan to reduce beyond the New Start treaty's limit of 1,550 deployed strategic warheads, and promise to set up procedural roadblocks in the Senate.

It has come as welcome news for Japan's major airlines that their customers do not seem to be worried about flying on Boeing 787s since the aircraft's return to service. Concerns have also eased regarding the effect of the 787's battery problems on their delivery schedules.

Demand for new narrowbodies unbroken, Boeing accelerates schedule

In late April, the FAA trumped the National Transportation Safety Board by approving a redesign and return-to-flight plan for the Boeing 787's troubled lithium-ion batteries. It came the same week NTSB held an investigative hearing in which participants made it clear that the root cause for the smoking batteries had not been found. The usually loquacious NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman played it cool at the time, but public comments she provided in the FAA's airworthiness directive (AD) docket for the 787 fix earlier this month reveal she might yet have the last word.