Low-cost airlines in China? - Orient Aviation

special report
Ansett: the name lives on
MRO business keeps a proud flag flying;
two years business on the books
By Tom Ballantyne
in Sydney
Ansett Australia, the airline, is
well and truly dead. Ansett,
the maintenance, repair and
overhaul (MRO) business,
may officially be in the hands
of the former airline’s administrators, but
it is alive and more than kicking, with big
ambitions for its future.
“There are a lot of experienced people
here and they have been through
a lot of hardship, but they are sticking
around because they believe in what we
can do,” declared Paul Bithavas, general
manager engineering services for the
all new Ansett Aviation Engineering
Services, or AAES. “There is a light at
the end of the tunnel ... and it’s not an
express train.”
On the contrary, the 500 staff on
AAES’ books have enough work to keep
them busy for a couple of years. Currently,
that mainly involves maintenance
and checks on former Ansett jets owned
by lessors such as investment groups
and banks that are being prepared for
delivery to new customers.
A case in point is AAES’s recently
completed reconfiguration and full D check
on an ex-Ansett B737 bound for Brazilian
domestic carrier, Rio Sul Airlines.
But the former airline maintenance
unit is pulling out all stops to emerge as
one of the region’s major independent
MRO firms.
It is moving into phase three of its
recovery plan, which is a campaign to
win commercial airline customers from
around the region and beyond.
There have been no official announcements
yet, but the company is
talking to at least five potential customers
in Asia and expects to finalise some of
these deals by the end of March.
It has been a long and traumatic
road for anyone involved in Ansett since
the big Australian domestic and international
carrier collapsed more than a
year ago.
During the first phase after the shutdown,
MRO staff had to adjust to the
drama of losing their parent and come
to terms with restructure and rationalisation.
Next, they had to negotiate transition,
prepare a business plan and adjust to
Ansett Aviation Engineering Services,
general manager, Paul Bithavas: a lot of
goodwill in the market
operating as an independent company.
As well they have had to ready the MRO
for outside investment and possibly
eventual sale.
These processes involved decisions
on the workforce – most staff are now
on contract, rather than being fully employed
by AAES – as well as focus on
specific business areas.
There were three primary units at
Ansett: aircraft maintenance, component
repair and the engine division. Qantas
has signed an agreement to purchase
the engine business, a move scheduled
to take place in mid-2003. AAES will
continue to accept work in some component
areas but will mainly focus on
maintenance.
Since November, the company has
moved into its latest phase, building up
a long-term customer base. AAES says
it is selling a worldwide reputation, built
up over decades, of high quality work on
aircraft it knows well.
With hangars capable of housing
wide-body Boeing B767s and a range
of single aisles, from the B737 and Airbus
A320 to the BAe146, Bithavas said:
“There is a hell of a lot of experience
here. We started working on A320 maintenance
in 1988 and we have worked on
the B737 for 16 years, from the time the
aircraft first came to the region.
“We understand the issues involved
in the maintenance of these planes. They
have been learned over the long-term.
We understand the life-cycle costs,” said
Bithavas.
“You can go to the U.S. or Europe and
pay companies a fortune, but they have
only been doing the work for a handful
of years.”
As far as winning work is concerned,
this is one MRO willing to look to the past
and the future.
“We are not afraid to go back into
working on the Fokker F28 or the B727,
but we will also obtain clearance to work
Ansett Aviation Engineering Services: building up a long-term customer base
42 Orient Aviation, February 2003