Wow! I was shocked at the positive support for PMA from the Chinese carriers in a recent air carrier PMA/DER conference in China.
MARPA attended the Independent and Alternative Materials Conference in China on November 11-12. We participated in both the leasing panel on day one and also provided a day two speech discussing the PMA marketplace and MARPA’s efforts to promote Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA) parts. Sponsored jointly by Heico and Chromalloy, the Conference hosted about 80 participants, representing all of the major air carriers from China.
Feng Xiabao of Hainan Airlines pointed out the dual benefit of increased reliability and cost savings from PMA. Jason Wang of China Southern explained that the pricing, reliability and safety of PMA parts need no further analysis. He took that as a given and focused instead on positive advice concerning product support mechanisms for PMA companies.
Lufthansa Technik has a Northeast China location serving the Chinese carrier community, and Richard Haas of that facility provided statistics from his experience about reliability increases associated with use of PMA parts that resolved issues identified in OEM parts. Between 2001 and 2010, increased use of PMA parts in CFM-56-5C has correlated to increased mean time between service for that engine– increasing the mean time between service from about 13,000 hours in 2001 to almost 21,000 hours in 2010. A similar increase has also been seen to correlate with the increased use of PMA parts in the CF6-80 engine.
The attendees and the speakers made it clear that the value of PMA is clear to Chinese carriers. MARPA received questions about topics like how to identify existing PMA parts that could be used by Chinese air carriers; now the next step is for PMA companies to bring their products to the customers!
