Aviation Week & Space Technology - 3 November 2014

should still have

4,000 flight hours

left and pass their

borescope and

EGT tests.”

Clarke says the

global regulatory

environment also makes lease return

more difcult. “Europe has air trafc

control equipage requirements, others

don’t. China requires head-up displays.

These are high-cost modifications.”

Owners pay for these modifications,

but they are most efciently done dur-

ing redelivery checks, another reason

for collaborative planning by lessor

and lessee.

Different aviation authorities seek

diferent documents and follow difer-

ent procedures. “Some let aircraft come

into their country on a temporary reg-

istration, then do a full inspection when

it arrives,” Clarke says. “Others come

in and do a week of inspection in the

exporting country, which causes head-

aches.” Like Ryan, Clarke sees diferent

inspection approaches used even by

staf within the same country.

Clarke believes globally accepted

digital documentation would help

“hugely” in easing burdens. European

carriers are moving ahead with digi-

tized records, but China and South-

east Asia, the fastest-growing aviation

markets, lag behind. “We are running

a hybrid system of paper and digital

records now and not saving money. But

we must standardize first, then digi-

tize.” Santos Dumont is working with

IATA on standardization and digitiza-

tion, but Clarke is not sure things will

change much in the next 5-10 years.

Tony Diaz, president of CIT Com-

mercial Air, cites different national

regulatory requirements for mainte-

nance, technical status and records as

a major cost driver. Just reviewing new

national requirements before transfer

takes time and money and makes tran-

sitions more difcult. Uniform regula-

tion would ease transfers, he argues.

EASA and FAA are more closely

aligned than authorities elsewhere, “but

even these are not perfectly synchro-

nized,” Diaz notes. Diferent document

needs flow from diferent requirements

or enforcement methods. Aligning re-

quirements and enforcement would

thus remove this problem.

Diaz says it is unfortunate there is

still no standardized, digitized record

template. “It’s on the way and overdue.

This area cries out for standardization.”

Lacking standard templates, all parties

require documenting everything to

avoid risks when moving assets.

Diaz urges the industry to move

toward clearly defined international

regulations—one template for docu-

ments and one standard for parts. But

he expects the path will be a long one. c

MRO Edition

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OPERATIONS

Peach Airlines leases this Airbus

A320 from GE Capital Aviation

Services.

AIRBUS/P.MASCLET

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