From toaster, ovens or T.V’s on the plane to the new generation IDG’s (Integrated Drive Generators), First Class Air Repair provides repair and overhaul of almost all major aircraft components. You name it and they have it in their inventory. Known in the aviation industry for their fastest turn-around-time, they pride themselves in customer satisfaction and quality management. In a candid chat with Swati.k , Mike Moran, President, First Class Air Repair shares his views on the robust market competition, expansion plans for his company and more. Some excerpts from the Interview
Q – The retirement age of an aircraft is about 25 to 30 years. However moderate fuel prices and strong air-traffic growth over the years have led to a slow aircraft teardown market. What are your predictions about this market in coming years?
A – Airlines are pushing the 25-30 year aircraft life cycle out further and further increasing the need for repairs for longer periods.
The OEM’s try hard to limit the work being completed by the smaller shops, but there is a place for both in the market, now and in the future. Competition helps to keep pricing realistic and restricts the OEM’s tendency to inflate prices to cover their high overhead. Airlines should encourage OEM’s to support smaller shops as a supplement to the OEM services. We are not a threat to OEM’s and there is room for all of us
Our Unlimited Class I, II and III certification put us in a stronger position than those that have limited capabilities by allowing us to diversify as repair trends vary. Having a flexible approach has worked well for us in the past and will allow us to move with the times going forwards.
Q – With your motto of keeping customer first, fast turn-around-time and excellence in quality, what are the challenges you face while delivering all three?
A – First Class Air Repair has a primary commitment to quality and reliability in our products and services. Maintaining and delivering quality products at an affordable price and in a realistic timescale is a challenge for any 145 repair shop. We take pride in our ability to source quality parts by working closely with OEM’s and distributors worldwide.
Q – There are over 50,000 line items in the company stock, readily available for immediate shipment and delivery thereby making inventory management a big task at hand. In spite of digitization, manual expertise is a major pre-requisite. Your opinion
A – Inventory management is a time consuming and complex task that requires both technology and manual intervention. Well defined processes and efficient layout of the facilities help ensure a smooth, effective transition from order to shipment.
Q – With about 21,000 sq feet air conditioned facility in Groveland, you recently expanded the IDG division. Can you tell us about your future expansion plans?
A – Our IDG division has expanded exponentially over the last two years. Our growing reputation as a high quality, cost effective service provider has helped present further opportunity. Our commitment to quality is also demonstrated by our industry leading warranties; this level of service gets recognized through the industry and promotes growth.
We have recently increased our repair technician staff by 30% and that continues to grow as we expand our services. We have also relocated to a new facility that we have re-modelled with expansion in mind.
Q – In the aviation industry skilled workforce is a global problem. What, according to you should be the industry focus to tackle this problem?
A – The industry needs to come together to address this problem. The aviation industry is struggling to keep up with worldwide growth and continual resource demand. Changes to the way we train the younger generation are vital; interactive training, virtual reality and Game Based Training applications are more relevant and appealing to todays up and coming engineers, technicians and mechanics. These tools are gaining momentum but need to be promoted and expanded to all levels of the aviation industry.
Q – Lastly, in today’s robust component repair market, how do you plan to stay ahead in the competition?
We plan to continue to do what we are doing; provide an honest, reliable, affordable and quality service to our customers. We focus on the markets and products we can do well but are always looking for new opportunities to diversify our portfolio.
