AMR plans to imulate DELTA

[Buck]

Buck, they do their own engines in-house but outsource most of their HMVs but insource third party work.

I understand what you are saying, however I still do not understand this concept of farming out your own aircraft only to use your own facilities and labor to perform third party maintenance. AA has had some engines here at TUL in the past but mainly for our Test Cells.

 

[Kev3188]

How is that cost effective? Delta gets their overhauls cheaper than they can charge themselves?

Maybe, but the larger point is that they can make more money faster doing component repair/overhaul and 3rd party work than if they did all HMV work inhouse. It also (obviously) takes less space to do so, and the work can be performed in more locations across the system. In short, it keeps the workers more productive, and is a better return on investment.

Not for nothing, but as far as I know, all recall lists are exhausted for the AMT group. The line stations that have recently opened up (or been reopened) were to better align manpower with flight activity, and to avoid a repeat of the meltdown we had a couple of summers ago.

 

[Bogey]

AA is planning on co-locating it's MOC and SOC functions within the next two years. That is exactly how DL does it. So it could be an operational copy-cat you are hearing about.

 

[jimntx]

"Emulate" Delta - does that mean "make money"?

Of course not! That is not part of our plan. You obviously don't see the big picture. As long as we take in enough cash to pay the executive bonusses, we don't need to make any more than that. We don't believe in being greedy.

 

[Duke787]

AA emulating Delta could the worst thing for the unions, Delta employee's keeps voting union organization down. How awesome would that be, making more money and not paying the juice to a union to have a job.

 

[chris perry]

Delta was rumored to have a record meltdown operationally during BK,I see no difference here...we are well on our way there...

 

[Super FLUF]

I remember a while ago hearing a rumor about AA wanting to not only service 787's in-house, but also be a Boeing "preferred vendor" for other airlines' inspections/overhaul etc. for the aircraft.

Whatever happened to this idea?

I hope if they do it they will do it right - cutting edge inspection equipment to inspect for delaminations rather than having a "Bob Reding" style inspection consisting of a teAAm walking around the aircraft tapping on it with quarters. 🙄

 

[Birdman]

How awesome would that be, making more money and not paying the juice to a union to have a job.

That would be most awesome.

 

[eolesen]

AA is planning on co-locating it's MOC and SOC functions within the next two years. That is exactly how DL does it. So it could be an operational copy-cat you are hearing about.

This has nothing to do with emulating Delta. I'd say most (80%?) of the airlines I've worked with globally co-locate their MOC & SOC... Not all airlines have an SOC. Some still do a regional control center; those tend to also have aircraft assigned to a specific hub or subset of the network, as opposed to free-flow routings over the entire system.

 

[787nightmare]

DL outsources most of their HMV visits and brings in other airlines planes to work on.

From a former DL mech that I wkd with at Boeing-

"outsourcing small maintenance and insourcing big. got rid of Trent800 Rolls Royce engine overhaul cuz not many operators but made room for cfm56 cuz everyone but everyone flys them. outsourcing 767 and 757 now because tooling and parts getting old. and people upgrading. still
doing a lot of 737 insourcing."

 

[Overspeed]

From a former DL mech that I wkd with at Boeing-

"outsourcing small maintenance and insourcing big. got rid of Trent800 Rolls Royce engine overhaul cuz not many operators but made room for cfm56 cuz everyone but everyone flys them. outsourcing 767 and 757 now because tooling and parts getting old. and people upgrading. still
doing a lot of 737 insourcing."

Heard that DL outsources the MD80, MD90, 757, 767, and 777 airframes. So they kept the 83 737 airframe overhaul lines in-house and outsourced 633 other airframe lines? If AA follows that model this could get ugly.

 

[WorldTraveler]

From a former DL mech that I wkd with at Boeing-

"outsourcing small maintenance and insourcing big. got rid of Trent800 Rolls Royce engine overhaul cuz not many operators but made room for cfm56 cuz everyone but everyone flys them. outsourcing 767 and 757 now because tooling and parts getting old. and people upgrading. still
doing a lot of 737 insourcing."

The AA-RR partnership says they are the only authorized overhaul facility for Trents in N. America... which means DL either could get authorized to support a fleet of 8 RR powered 777s (the rest are GE powered LRs) or contract out that maintenance (as they must do for the GE90 engines as part of the 777 contracts).
So, yes, DL contracts out what the work which they can get others to do cheaper while using DL facilities to bring in revenue through insourcing for work others want them to do - primarily "common engines" like the CFMs and PW2000s and 4000s.
According to DOT data and DL statements, they receive about $500M per year in insourcing revenue compared to a total maintenance bill for their own fleet of about $2B/year which means that DL achieves one of the highest percentage of insourcing revenue to its own maintenance costs of any major airline in the world.

 

[787nightmare]

Heard that DL outsources the MD80, MD90, 757, 767, and 777 airframes. So they kept the 83 737 airframe overhaul lines in-house and outsourced 633 other airframe lines? If AA follows that model this could get ugly.

O/speed, I believe this going to be uglier than most in TULE think. I'm amazed at the "ahh we'll alright" attitudes around here. But hey, I hope they're right...we'll see.

 

[furp]

The AA-RR partnership says they are the only authorized overhaul facility for Trents in N. America... which means DL either could get authorized to support a fleet of 8 RR powered 777s (the rest are GE powered LRs) or contract out that maintenance (as they must do for the GE90 engines as part of the 777 contracts).
So, yes, DL contracts out what the work which they can get others to do cheaper while using DL facilities to bring in revenue through insourcing for work others want them to do - primarily "common engines" like the CFMs and PW2000s and 4000s.
According to DOT data and DL statements, they receive about $500M per year in insourcing revenue compared to a total maintenance bill for their own fleet of about $2B/year which means that DL achieves one of the highest percentage of insourcing revenue to its own maintenance costs of any major airline in the world.

DL cannot get authorized to do their Trents......ALL Trents are owned by Rolls Royce and are power by the hour. The truth always comes out.

 

[WorldTraveler]

I'm not sure where there is a difference of opinion - or the need for any further truth - since we both recognize that DL can't do its own overhaul work on the Trents - not unlike the GE90s on the 77LRs.
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The point remains that DL makes money insourcing what they can do - and that has provided financial stability for Tech Ops. I sincerely hope that AA comes up with a similar strategy to use the immense maintenance resources and capabilities to offset the inevitable cuts in maintenance work AA does inhouse.
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Pres. Obama's comments last night on the state of the union about outsourcing could make it much more difficult politically for AA to dramatically cut TUL and ship shops out of the country.