Source: ALTA

The last panel of the day at the ALTA CCMA & MRO Conference brought panelists discussing the status of the aviation maintenance industry in the region. Moderated by Jonathan Berger, director of Alton Aviation Consultancy, the meeting was attended by Pat Foley, CEO of Lufthansa Technik Puerto Rico, Basil Papayoti, head of operations of MRO Holding and Caroline Vandedrink, Senior Vice President of Business Development, SR Technics Group.

According to moderator Jonathan Berger, airline losses continue to improve, led by North America, but headwinds remain. From a financial point of view, Basil Papayoti of MRO Holding comments that the company is recovering after a critical period experienced at the end of 2020. “We took aircraft that were retired and put back into the mainstream. In North America we have percentages of almost 90% travel”.

The current inactive fleet remains high, with more than 6,000 aircraft stopped in April 2022, more than twice the pre-pandemic count. Pat Foley, CEO of Lufthansa Technik of Puerto Rico, highlights the term resilience that has been commented on throughout the day. “We are certainly in a tough time, but resilience was the hallmark of the Porto Rico’s team. We have grown our portfolio in America and have an extremely positive scenario and come out of the pandemic with much success with about 60 new contracts in the last year being 7 with market entrants”.

 Another challenge presented in the panel was the replacement of the workforce of the maintenance technicians. According to a survey by Alton Aviation, in the next 20 years, the global demand for new maintenance technicians is expected to grow by 50%, but the retirement versus new graduates’ rates do not meet this demand. In the United States, for example, the average age of technicians is 51 and it is estimated that the retirement rates of technicians exceed those of new hires in the next decade. Currently every 4 technicians retiring there are only 3 new technicians graduating.

About this, Caroline Vandedrink, Senior Vice President of Business Development at SR Technics Group, explains that the industry has been seeking new hires and training courses, but faces some obstacles “the new generation has sought other industries and it may be easier in some places than in others,” he explains.