Airline
Division Representatives Attend MRO Conference
This
week Representatives Chris Moore and Bob Fisher attended the MRO Network
conference in Montreal, Canada. A detailed report will issued shortly by the
representatives who report that trending continues to be positive for domestic
maintenance as labor rates in Asia continue to move upward. It is expected that
both established Asian countries labor rates, as well as emerging Asian
countries labor rates, will converge with domestic rates in approximately 2018.
Such a trend will make it impractical to offshore widebody overhauls to Asia in
the future.
A
second key point is that M&A (merger and acquisition) activity is heating up
with more than 100 such transactions expected by the end of this year, up
slightly from last year's roughly 80 transactions. For the past five years this
trend has continued as MRO's which have little yield seek to join forces to
produce more volume. Obviously this will drive up costs to airlines as this
trend continues. It is anticipated that more companies start to discuss
outsourcing using the word contracting. According to ARSA, the word
“contracting” doesn't have the same negative connotations as outsourcing with
the public and regulators.
It
makes no difference what it's called, outsourcing is outsourcing. A detailed
report of this conference in the next TAMC newsletter.
UAL
Scope Meeting Held
On
Wednesday the scope committee met in Houston. The line and hangar plans for sCO
and sUA were discussed. There will be some movement of work around the system as
fleets are moved, but there was no anticipation of any headcount reduction
systemwide. There will be movement of some line check work into IAD and EWR as a
result of the new hangars in those locations. There was also discussion of
bringing back in house some checks that have been previously outsourced. The
company explored this possibility with the committee and it appears there could
be movement to bring some of this work back into the SFO base.
Grievance
to Be Filed Regarding Health and Welfare Benefits
As
reported in the UAL Mechanics Update
last week the Division will be filing a grievance this coming week over the
unilateral change in medical benefits. The company was notified that the union
will be processing one grievance on behalf of the membership. The Division
intends to move this grievance to the front of the arbitration docket to attempt
an expedited resolution.
Safety
Director Attends Winter Operations Conference
Last week,
IBT Airline Division Safety Coordinator Russ Leighton attended the Air Canada
Pilots Association (ACPA) Winter Operations Conference in Vancouver, B.C. The
conference was attended by representatives from around the world, and featured
many speakers who are experts in various professions that handle winter
operations at airlines and airports from every corner of the globe.
Some new
practices of particular interest to Airline Division carriers were presented
this year. Of particular note to any carrier that operates in Canada pertains
to deicing trucks. Most de-ice trucks in use at Canadian airports this year
will be utilizing proximity sensors called “tusks”. The sensors are four-foot
fiberglass rods, with a hard rubber ball at the tip, that protrude from both
sides of the spray nozzle at approximately 60 degree angles. The sensors are
connected to a shutoff valve on the de-ice boom’s hydraulics. When the rods
sense ten pounds or more of pressure, the sensor activates the hydraulic shutoff
valve, removing hydraulic pressure to the de-ice boom, preventing the boom from
striking and damaging the aircraft. When this sensor is tripped, a mandatory
report is made to the cockpit, informing the crew that there was a “tusk-out”.
The ground crew will further inform the crew as to their assessment of whether
any damage may have occurred.
While
damage is very unlikely, it will be the crew’s call as to whether or not they
want maintenance to do an inspection. In the past, crews not familiar with a
‘tusk-out” have automatically returned to the gate, under the assumption that
the boom or truck contacted the aircraft, making damage quite likely. This
technology, or varying versions of it, will also likely be found at some U.S.
airports, and may possibly use different terminology. Airline Division Safety
Committees should consider an audit of what type of new technology airports used
by their carriers are employing this winter, and what terminology will be
used.
The second
important item involves carriers that operate Boeing 737’s. Boeing gave a
briefing on precautions that de-icers must take when spraying a 737. This is
the only Boeing model susceptible to the problems that Boeing identified. The
issue at hand for operators and flight crews is the setting of the horizontal
stabilizer. Previously Boeing’s guidance was to set the stabilizer so that the
“leading edge of the stabilizer was all the way up” (Boeing Terminology for full
nose-down trim). New guidance has the crew setting the stab trim to 5.0 units.
The
purpose is to cover the fuselage cut-out, where linkage runs from the elevator
to the elevator Power Control Units (PCU), which are located inside the tail
cone. There is also guidance for de-ice crews on how to spray this part of the
aircraft. The goal is to prevent spaying contamination and de-ice fluid into
the cut-out, potentially causing the PCU to not function properly. The Division
Safety Director will be contacting Airline Division Safety Committees where the
737 is operated, for a more detailed briefing.
Airline
Industry News
Governmental
and Regulatory
Furloughed
workers at the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation
Safety Board began returning to
work
to work after the government shutdown ended on Thursday. Around one-third of the
FAA's staff was furloughed during the 16-day partial shutdown, while the NTSB
operated with a skeleton staff of fewer than 25 workers.
Sixty-eight
House Democrats wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder in
protest
of the Justice Department's blockage of the proposed merger between American
Airlines and US Airways.
With
the NTSB now back at
work, investigators
will begin looking into the uncontained engine failure on a Spirit Airlines
Airbus last week.
Airlines,
Industry and Labor
American
Airlines, US Airways and the Justice Department have laid out the documents and
exhibits for
the upcoming antitrust trial on the proposed merger between the two carriers.
The trial is scheduled to begin on Nov. 25, and closing arguments are scheduled
for Jan. 6.
Chicago
O'Hare International Airport opened a new
runway this
week. The 10,800-foot runway should help ease congestion at the airport,
officials said. The $1.3 billion runway is part of the airport's $8 billion
modernization effort.
Tom
Horton, the CEO of American Airlines, said the carrier is open to a
settlement
with the Department of Justice. "The judge affirmed the trial date for Nov. 25,"
he said. "And back on the settlement, we do remain open to a sensible common
sense settlement, we do, and we're being very thoughtful about
that."