This year and especially this fall was a remarkable one for the aviation business not only in the US but even, or especially, in Europe. Many tradeshows were scheduled and AMT covered them all. This report highlights some of our activity and impressions from this year’s MRO Europe and Helitech International, both held near one another in Amsterdam/Holland.
2018 MRO Europe
According to the organizer of MRO Europe, the event attracted record crowds at RAI Amsterdam - the Amsterdam fairgrounds located really convenient and close to the city center. More than 9,000 registered attendees from 105 countries, 447 exhibitors and some 800 airline attendees. MRO Europe is the largest gathering of the aviation maintenance community in Europe which offered plenty of opportunities for networking and showcased many offerings presented by hundreds of exhibitors. Product developments were announced/showcased and important news were made, and last but not least, important contracts were signed.
Industry experts from Airbus, Boeing, Lilium shared their views on the future of MRO, data ownership, and MRO issues in different occasions. A day prior to the official opening we attended an afternoon of conferences where speakers have spoken about:
Valter Fernandes, CEO TAP Express, about the reasons for the slow adoption and maturing of new projects and how this could be overcome.
Aviation experts David Stewart and Joost Gronenboom analyzed the status and trends of the MRO and aviation industries, including challenges and opportunities for the future.
Frank Stephenson, head of product design at the German VTOL Lilium GmbH spoke passionately about the Lilium's eVTOL aircraft and about innovation in vertical mobility, and integration of diverse systems and technologies. According to him this big advancement in mobility will enable high-speed personal connectivity as an on-demand service with dynamic pricing, which will - according to him - be way faster and even cheaper than today’s taxis.
Those sessions were followed by a "three-way competition" where OEMs Airbus, Boeing, and Embraer discussed how their new services strategies are going to change the MRO business.
Walking through the exhibition halls I found of great interest the friendly general layout and the existence of special interest areas. The show organizer created a Part 21 Pavilion, several regional pavilions, and the "New Exhibitors Showcase". For the first time, MRO Europe hosted the Part 21 Pavilion, a designated area within the exhibition hall where MROs, airlines, and lessors requiring Part 21J (design) and Part 21G (manufacturing) services could meet companies that hold these approvals. Booth number 6080 was "New Exhibitors Showcase" which was populated by newcomers in this business.
Impressions of the industry
The MRO sector appears in good (excellent) health, and this growth is for some in the field possibly a problem, as like always, after a vigorous growth a recession might occur. To prepare for this seems for many in the market a real problem as today subjects fight the opposite problem, the lack of qualified personnel. Lot of activities relating to mergers and acquisitions where I could permanently hear the word: partnerships.
Way more than in previous years I witnessed discussions on an evolution of a digital revolution. There is an intensive discussion to whom belong the collected data and who and how it is able to be used. Here I expect a longer and even more intense discussion as data streams are rapidly, actually exponentially growing and many subjects are not yet ready and capable to use the data properly. We experience more digitalization but this means even more targets for hackers. Many companies seem to be concerned. In the case of the cybersecurity many companies have difficulties identifying where their vulnerabilities lie.
Hot Topics
Some market subjects and experts are concerned that in past several years, aircraft, engine, and component manufacturers have been increasing their role as MRO providers in the aviation aftermarket. Main words were spent on continuing growth, price and wages rise and reduction of operating costs.
Another "hot" topic of special interest and a sort of a Damocles Sword above the heads of companies from Great Britain was BREXIT. Many market subjects and specialists, 90 percent of them from GB were concerned. Interesting there was not even a discussion on that subject; most of them blocked any discussion saying: "I do not want to comment this".
Sessions
Very helpful were the hosted sessions mainly used for product briefings and complimentary content in the "Go Live Theater," a dedicated space located on the show floor. These opportunities were open to all attendees and I counted some 20 lectures. I found of special interest lectures from Asssystemas on the possibility to print parts for a cabin and lectures hosted by Inter.Tec/Flitetec on "Reverse Engineering Parts," Honeywell’s Tim Roberts on "Condition-Based Maintenance for Rotorcraft," as on topics like "3-D scanning for Part 21 Design" by Consilio3D Technologies.
At this MRO Europe event we could find a dedicated space for the electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) and urban air mobility (UAM), where most of the activities have been done by industry, particularly startups. There was even a MRO Drone area where attendees could find out more about where and how the drones could be used for maintenance.
A few exhibitors
AAR, a global leader in aviation services and integrated customer solutions, maintains a strong presence in Europe. Along with a long-time component repair and overhaul shop in Amsterdam, an AOG customer support centre in London-Gatwick, and warehousing locations in Brussels and Hanover to name a few locations.
AAR debuted the AIRVOLUTION, a new cloud-based solution for component repair management. AMT sat down with AAR's Paul Richardson and Matt Kammerait, and was given a live demonstration of the AIRVOLUTION by Jim Gross, AAR's President of Digital Services. It was impressive. AIRVOLUTION combines the best of AAR’s Digital Services and Airinmar’s 30 plus years of expertise in repair cycle management. The product is designed to get each person using it to their next most efficient action. It features unlimited document and digital asset storage, allowing for all materials related to a given repair to be stored in a centralized, easy-to-access location.
A few important features are the secure cloud-based system with flexibility to scale when needed, use of detailed visual graphics, data analytics and reporting for enhanced management effectiveness and informed decision making. The system will save all documentation and email communication by repair order with no storage limitation, cost benchmark and contract pricing Repair cost approval review aids, including and visibility, tracking and management of all assets in the repair cycle. AIRVOLUTION also has the ability to streamline the end-to-end repair cycle process. The full AIRVOLUTION platform will be released in early 2019.
Magnetic MRO services large aviation companies from Europe and even from Africa and has sealed recently important MRO contracts with Austrian Airlines, SAS, and Air Nostrum just to mention some. Recently the company received fresh capital, diversified its business and has brought fresh ideas into the conservative MRO market. Those ideas are something remarkable; during the opening-speech of the MRO Europe in an Airline Keynote Valter Fernades, CEO of TAP Express mentioned how slow new projects are maturing in the aviation business and how difficult it is for small companies like TAP Express to visualize and pursue (for example) new cabin interior lay-outs. What he missed is what Magnetic MRO is offering, new fresh ideas and new software. I was shown on a tablet by Pärtel Peter Kruuv, the interior project manager how easy it is for Magnetic MRO to visualize to small customers' different interiors colors and seat materials. Magnetic MRO in 2017 received the Estonia’s company of the year and exporter of the year awards.
APU MRO service provider TurbineAero was represented by Peter Gille, vice president and general manager, who explained to us big changes which recently happened at the company which is headquartered in Chandler, AZ, USA. By mid-May TurbineAero announced definitive agreement to acquire Triumph’s Aviation Services Asia APU Repair Product Line (“RPL”) and in October was the groundbreaking ceremony for a new building in the Free Zone of the Amata City Industrial Estate, Chonburi, in Thailand.
MTU Maintenance announced the launch of its Technical Asset Management Services (TAMS) for asset owners, with a range of services covering comprehensive technical consulting and fleet management, transitions management and housekeeping support for aircraft engines.
Joachim Lau, sales director Aerospace of Assystem Germany GmbH, introduced the 3-D printing technology summarizing the advantages of ALM parts in aircraft cabins like on-demand production and rapid prototyping. Since 2017 Assystem is supporting the airlines with the identification of potential ALM parts and is providing improved designs, prototyping for fit check and serial parts with Form 1. The company, a first time exhibitor, is offering EASA approved cabin modifications and system integration as well as a small range of products such as “Crew Rest Class 3” and ALM parts.
Satair made several announcements and presented new technologies and processes. Satair and Metamaterial Technologies Inc. (MTI) and its optical filters division Lamda Guard of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, signed at the MRO Europe exhibition an exclusive global multimillion dollar distribution agreement to bring MTI’s metaAIR laser glare protection eyewear and visors to global aviation and defense markets.
The Satair/Airbus booth was almost continuously sieged not only because of vast content of offered services; a small 3-D-printing machine attracted special interest. Satair is offering Airbus material management seminars, and one in the category of specialized seminars is the "Additive Manufacturing (AM) in Aviation". David Wottke, project manager AM Solutions at Satair was constantly surrounded by a crowd interested in the AM tools manufacturing which was demoed by Thorsten Gribb at the event. Satair is offering not only the 3-D print hardware but is offering customized, three-day worldwide seminars on AM and manufacturing on parts and tools.
Student Attendees
A group of 60 Dutch students studying aircraft and aviation maintenance were able to visit MRO Europe this year through the Educavia Program to learn more about the industry they are entering and meet potential employers face-to-face.
After the MRO Europe doors closed, selected attendees were given the opportunity to visit Fokker Services and its new component repair and overhaul facility at Schiphol Airport. The next edition of MRO Europe will be held in London, October 15-17, 2019.
Helitech International
One of the largest trade fairs for helicopters in Europe took place from Tuesday, 16 October to Thursday, 18 October 2018 in Amsterdam. Top companies of the industry were represented and presented their latest helicopter and services. Some 4,800 rotorcraft professionals went to Helitech International 2018 from more than 70 different countries encountering some 150+ exhibitors.
Helitech International covered this year more topics than in past years such as the future outlook of the offshore oil and gas sector, improvements in SAR (search and rescue) missions and the latest MRO trends. The conference sessions at Helitech International were also in high demand. For the first time, with great response, Helitech covered the synergies between rotorcraft and UAVs.
Innovation was an important topic and visitors could explore the latest technology from leading OEMs, like Airbus, Bell, and Leonardo Helicopters. There we could find suppliers of cutting-edge navigation systems, night vision technology, and training services.
Impressions of the industry
It appears the helicopter MRO and helicopter sector is also in good health and operators are with satisfaction seeing the European upswing. Other topics are similar or almost identical to those mentioned above in the MRO Europe review. The only field I have heard surprisingly little was from the field of eVTOLS. I would say the established manufacturers in this field are watching the newly arrived VTOL subjects with (at least) suspicion.
Several of the industry’s top suppliers used the show as a platform for their key announcements.
Airbus Helicopters announced an impressive haul of 19 orders during the show, largely buoyed by light single and light twin returns.
Leonardo Helicopters and Specialist Aviation Services held a ceremony to mark the latter company’s appointment as an “Excellent Service Centre” for AW139 and AW169 operations in Ireland and the UK. With Roberto Caparella AMT discussed the topic of composite repair of rotorcraft rotor-blades.
Waypoint Leasing Limited announced that it has delivered an Airbus H145 to Servicios Aéreos de los Andes in Peru.
Helinetwork International and CanRep teams formalized their partnership at the event, bringing together the biggest players in the aeronautics industry.
Bell announced that Helideal of France will become the first certified training facility for the Bell 505 Jet Ranger.
Safran Helicopter Engines announced improvements to its SBH (Support-By-the-Hour) service offering. SBH “pay as you fly” solutions now include: SBH5Star for civil operators of up to five aircraft, SBHClassic for fleets of six-plus aircraft, and SBHM for military air arms. On the second day of Helitech there was a first birthday celebration of the Safran Health Monitoring.
Kopter Group showcased its SH09 single-turbine helicopter.
Enstrom Helicopter signed a contract for delivery of a new Enstrom 280FX to its dealer, Rotor & Aircraft Sari.
The next edition of this event will be held in Farnborough U.K. from 5-7th November 2019 under a new name "Vertical Flight Expo and Conference".
