Malaysian maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) company Airod Aerospace Technologies (AAT) is in talks with French company Altran about becoming a completion center for Airbus A320 passenger-to-freighter conversions. Altran is an engineering consultancy that recently established an office in Kuala Lumpur to serve Southeast Asia.

JetBlue Airways, whose unit costs for maintenance rose nearly 70% from 2010 to 2012, expects to lower annual increases to about 5% in the next few years, thanks in part to flight-hour agreements and price caps on some of its heavy overhaul work, CFO Mark Powers says.

The congressional mandate that has created a backlog of foreign repair station applications also has forced airlines to reconsider expansion and contract maintenance plans because desired locations do not have FAA-approved shops, industry executives report.

Inspired by two Roman palaces, the National Building Museum was constructed in the 1880s with the dual purpose of housing the U.S. Pension Bureau and providing “a suitably grand space for Washington's social and political functions.” On March 7, nearly 300 aviation and aerospace luminaries from around the globe gathered in the cavernous building for Aviation Week's 56th annual Laureate Awards.

In 2012, deliveries of large commercial jets manufactured by Airbus and Boeing exceeded $88 billion in value, at estimated prices, up 57% since 2008. During that same four-year period, the global economy had its worst years since World War II. The macroeconomic recovery has been anemic, and demand for air travel only marginally better. While airline revenue passenger kilometers grew 6.9% in 2010 following a 3.5% decline in 2009, growth eased to just 5.3% in 2011.

Air Canada's Alan Butterfield leads M&E through unprecedented circumstances.

With the help of all of the supply chain solutions available and the plethora of options for component asset management, airlines are gaining efficiencies and improving their bottom lines.

As Boeing prepares to conduct at least one and possibly two test flights as part of the certification of its redesigned 787 lithium-ion battery system, the airframer also is seeking FAA clearance for a series of ferry flights for aircraft stranded around the world. Several 787s remain at airports where they have been stuck since the fleet was grounded in mid-January. Boeing is working with the airlines and the FAA for some of them to be cleared for one-off ferry flights by the end of this month to relocate them to modification centers.