The magic lamp: where to prioritize the OEM’s focus

During the Latin American and the Caribbean Air Transport Association’s (ALTA) CCMA & MRO event, some industry C-level employees of Aeromexico, GOL, General Electric, Alton Aviation Consultancy, and Airbus, discussed what the OEM’s should focus on going forward. Here, let’s bring out the magic lamp and ask: where to prioritize the OEM’s focus? Bring us the honeymoon phase So, let’s be real for a moment, here we had Aeromexico and GOL, two Boeing customers, but there wasn’t a Boeing representative that could give some insights on the OEM’s focus. That didn’t stop both airlines talking about how they see the Boeing 737 MAX crisis right now, after nine months of the FAA’s recertification. Fernando Miwa, Maintenance Director at GOL Linhas Aereas, said, “We picked a new model, the Boeing 737 MAX, and we bet on it. We trust the equipment, and the companies behind it, and this is a marriage, and, what we’re looking for right now, is the famous honeymoon period. Right now, we’re not there yet.” He continued: “If I have to ask one thing (to the OEMs): please focus on getting the issues on these planes fixed, so you make sure the MAX has a reputation out there. Because, right now, we trust Boeing, CFM, the equipment, and it is the right equipment, but the problem is that with the media out there, the way it operates is incredible. In Brazil, every week we got something on the MAX, and they can write anything they want. And what comes out is ‘hey, there’s another issue on the MAX’. If I have to ask one thing, it would be to prioritize those issues and get us to the honeymoon phase.” Jorge Jacome, Aeromexico’s Corporate SVP of Maintenance and Engineering, agreed with Miwa’s insight. He said that the performance of the MAX is great, but the airline still has “this uncertainty on when are we going to have a failure.” Jacome added: “We have received a lot of support from Boeing and General Electric on the MAX. I think, in the future, just try to fix these problems! (Let’s avoid) the infant mortality with these airplanes, (and once that’s done), the future is as with any other airplane; once it is mature, it is a good product.” Reduce infant mortality in the industry Jonathan Berger, managing director at Alton Aviation Consultancy, gave a piece of advice to the OEMs: focus more on the core competency of end design and manufacturing, and less on the aftermarket. Jorge Jacome talked about infant mortality in the airline industry. Jonathan Berger added a bit more context on the subject. “Pre-pandemic, people recall the 787 Trent 1000 issue that, conveniently, went away due to the pandemic, but there were a lot of design issues. My least favorite word in the industry is ‘infant mortality, but yeah, the products that are coming out are so complex, and the software so sophisticated that obviously there are issues.” The 737 MAX program still faces a lot of challenges, even when we’re close to a year since the FAA recertified it again. For instance, China still has to green-light the MAX, and that topic has been moving at a snail pace. Boeing still has to fix the problems from a production rate, and supply chain perspective, and so more. And while we’re talking about the infant mortality rate, we sure have to bring home the B777X issues. Customer fleet stability and development of closer relationships So, what would the OEMs ask if they had the magic lamp, where would they prioritize the OEM’s focus? Jayesh Shanbhag, regional general manager of General Electric Aviation, said, “My three priorities outside of safety are customer fleet stability, customer fleet stability, and customer fleet stability. The reason that it is important is that it is our common metric that we owe to our customer’s customers. You don’t want to be stuck with an airplane that is on the ground. It’s not only impacting the revenue of the customers, but also the passengers and the brand erosion. That’s the biggest priority. The question is, how do we get ahead of it? To that question, Yohan Closs, vice-president of Airbus’ Customer Service, said, “My takeaway for the past months is that without any doubt we have developed a stronger relationship with our customers. We have all been impacted on a professional and personal side, and the only way to go through this was to be helping each other at finding solutions to move on. On our side, we maintained our fleet service team at the airline supporting day-to-day operations.” Shanbhang added that General Electric (and all the OEMs, for that matter) have to harness the power of data; proactively inform all the airlines of their issues, so they can have enough time to react and have spares available. “We got to get ahead and be sure that we have enough inventory on our shelves, so we can be ready to support our customers,” he added. If you had the magic lamp: where would you prioritize the OEM’s focus? You can see the whole ALTA CCMA & MRO Day 2 here.

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