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Special Edition Fast Facts - Tulsa Base Communications
October 21, 2009
Allegiant Airlines-AA M&E Update
The current maintenance agreement that American Airlines has with Allegiant Airlines will be fulfilled in mid November, 2009. Allegiant recently entered into a competitive bidding process, open to all Maintenance and Repair Organizations (MROs), including AA.
Allegiant’s fleet of 30 MD80 aircraft requires maintenance checks that have varying Bills of Work (BOW). The man-hours in these different checks range from ‘light’ (2,000 – 3,000 man/hours) to ‘heavy’ (about 10,000 man/hours). Tulsa M&E capacity planners have the challenge of integrating Allegiant maintenance checks into a dock plan for the legacy fleet. Based on a seamless integration into the dock plan, AA submitted a bid to the Las Vegas-based carrier to perform maintenance on 11 heavy check aircraft, to be included in the Pulse Line, and five light check aircraft, to be included into our Light C Check lines. Subsequent to submitting the bid, AA determined that it would continue to fly eight MD80 aircraft that were originally scheduled to be retired in 2010. Of these eight, six would require heavy checks. Tulsa capacity planners determined two options. First, keep the Allegiant proposal as is and outsource one MD80 check. Second, modify the Allegiant proposal and perform all of the MD80 heavy checks on the Pulse Line. The decision was made to modify the Allegiant proposal.
Following a frank, but cordial discussion with Allegiant, American modified its bid to include only the five light check aircraft. AA’s bid for maintenance on five Allegiant light checks remains active, and the negotiating team is awaiting a response to this latest offer. Additionally, American and Allegiant discussed the capacity available to American beginning in 2011. American indicated its interest in handling additional heavy checks at that time.
American offers Allegiant Airlines industry-leading advantages including, quicker turntimes than industry average, accommodations in dock scheduling to complement Allegiant’s flight schedule, and AA offers outstanding support for engineering, parts, back shop, and line maintenance through ‘field trip’ coverage of line operations. A source within the American Airlines team close to the negotiations said, “We believe the bid AA submitted to Allegiant is competitive based on the scope and quality of work we have demonstrated to the customer over the past several years.â€
Does AA not consider capacity beyond the Tulsa Maintenance Base?
Then today the admission that the decision regarding the continuation of the eight MD-80s has "Not been Finalized". Now this is some superior management and they deserve another big bonus.
10-22-2009 Fast Facts - Tulsa Base Communication
Clarification to Yesterday’s Special Fast Facts. In yesterday’s Special Fast Facts regarding Allegiant maintenance, Base Communications needs to clarify two points. Allegiant has 30 MD80 aircraft, which require some type of maintenance check for 2010. This constituted the work that was available for bid. The total Allegiant fleet is significantly larger than that. Second, the decision to continue flying eight additional MD80 aircraft has not been finalized. However, that possibility had to be taken into account as we approached the bid process. (Tulsa Base Communications)