Aircraft Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Market Study. - OBSA

How will the MRO market grow over the period to2035?As noted above, it is anticipated that the aviationindustry will continue to grow over the foreseeablefuture. Even in the event of continuing escalation offuel prices and weak economic growth, the industrywill continue to grow.Growth in MRO activities will not follow the sametrends. Each new generation of aircraft is moresophisticated than its predecessor. This improvementhas included major reduction in maintenancerequirements. Thus the specific engineering maintenancerequirement per aircraft will continue thecurrent trend of decline. In broad terms, MRO growthin the mainstream scenario will be less than half ofthe traffic growth. In the high fuel price scenario,there could possibly be no growth at all in overallMRO activity.Given the scale of the market, MSP Solutionsbelieves that a Glasgow MRO facility would be betterplaced to look for business maintaining narrowbody aircraft of European airlines. There may alsobe some opportunity for smaller wide-body aircraftsuch as B767, B787 and A350. It is unlikely that Glasgowwill be able to compete for business servicingthe larger wide-bodies (A380, B747) as the marketsize will be smaller and the investment in resourcesmuch greater. There are already well-establishedlarge wide-body aircraft MRO facilities in the UK,including British Airways Engineering at Cardiff Airport.The A380 will also be maintained at least twomajor European locations which will be more thanenough to support the initial aircraft fleets.Which acceptable organisations might be interestedin developing a major MRO facility at Glasgow?(Please note the response to this question is specificto Glasgow Airport.)The interview process indicated that there are operatorsand suppliers who would consider usingan MRO facility at Glasgow. Primarily these are UKbased companies.Is there an economic MRO development opportunityfor Glasgow and what would this be? (Please notethe response to this question is specific to GlasgowAirport.)MSP Solutions believes that there is an economiccase for MRO development at Glasgow. In view ofthe growth prospects, this cannot be based purelyon providing additional capacity to meet demand. Insteadit is crucial that a new MRO facility will haveto be developed on the principles of providing highquality at reasonable cost.The term “reasonable cost” is chosen carefully. Itwill not be possible to match the lowest unit costsworldwide, especially in Asia. However, it should bepossible to offer competitive prices compared withEurope, and to make an advantage of geographicalproximity to the operators.At this stage, the interviewed companies wish tokeep the discussions confidential by not being publiclyidentified in the report. If the Sponsors wishto develop the proposals, MSP Solutions would bewilling to contact those organisations already interviewedas well as others who might be interested insuch a project.How can the Sponsors attract such organisationsto create the desired MRO facility at Glasgow?(Please note the response to this question is specificto Glasgow Airport.)It is essential that careful planning and implementationshould be aimed at developing a new MRO facilitythat meets the main concerns of the industry, i.e.downtime, quality and cost.The issue of state aid or other grants could also beextremely important. Currently Regional SelectiveAssistance (RSA) offers grants up to 20%, but thelevel will be determined by the rules prevailing at thetime of application. New European Union rules applyfrom the beginning of January 2007.However, raising finance to complete a major MROproject appears to be the biggest challenge. The interviewsreveal that in general, MRO organisations4STRAIR Aircraft Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Market Study. Glasgow International Airport.