Indaba Indaba
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asl aviation group internal newsletter
air contractors Challenge 500 at Air Contractors
A number of Air Contractors management and employees recently attended an offsite workshop to discuss efficiencies and process improvements. It was an action-packed day with many subjects discussed and debated. Focus on keeping the Company lean and productive has always been the goal and the initiative, named Challenge 500, aims to leverage
savings of around €500k over the next 12 months. The following areas have been targeted: light Operations with particular F focus on training ngineering savings via improved E purchasing and operating procedures fficiency savings via capturing data E electronically and process improvements to free up people from routine tasks.
europe airpost A unique partnership with the tour operator Marmara Europe Airpost innovates with the creation of a unique partnership with Marmara. Marmara is the leading tour operator in France in terms of customer numbers, taking more than one million people on holiday each year. Marmara specialises in holidays, trips, tours and cruises at high standards of quality and at the lowest prices to the most prominent destinations outside France. When Marmara, a long term client of Europe Airpost, decided it needed to base a dedicated aircraft at Lyon, it naturally asked Europe Airpost to become a partner. As a result, starting April 6, Europe Airpost based one of its two full pax Boeing 737700s in Lyon, for a six-month period, renewable for the 2013 and 2014 summer seasons. A minimum of 2,600 flying hours in the agreement is guaranteed, and for the 2012 summer season 3,200 flying hours are already scheduled. The Europe Airpost’s B737-700 serves the following destinations: Malaga, Pal-
ace ACE gives leading edges the ‘boot’ Air Contractors Engineering (ACE), the Group’s maintenance facility, has been transforming itself to cope with changing conditions in the MRO market. The most important move has been the establishment of the re-
ma, Marrakech, Agadir, Olbia, Tunis, Monastir, Djerba, Corfu, Athens, Heraklion, Rhodes, Bodrum, Izmir and Taba. To make the organisation of the flights smooth and to avoid the constraints of setting up crews,
Company News Regarding this last point, our Information Systems department recently undertook an initiative to focus its efforts on using IT as a strategic enabler and seeing how to add value to the Air Contractors business. Business priorities were re-assessed and departmental meetings have taken place with the aim of identifying critical improvements needed by the business. As a result of these reviews a number of actions were identified : Systems project prioritisation proA cess has been introduced to identify the most pressing projects e ability to simplify the recharTh ge process with customers is a key project that has resulted from identifying areas of frustration for our customers
“ Automate the Office” has been coined as an expression to describe activities to capture data electronically and accurately with particular emphasis on the Operations area self-service IT help-desk has been A introduced to log all IT issues and keep customers informed of status. We are working with our customers
safair She has ARRIVED!!
Europe Airpost has chosen to create a base in Lyon. Following a call for, volunteer-based candidates, 12 cabin crews were selected (four teams) and six pilots (three crews). The crews are hosted in the premises of Space : Europe Airpost’s assistance company in Lyon.
After what seems like an eternity and following a lot of very frustrating times, particularly for Alec and team, ZS-JRC our first B737-400 or “Jerc” (Jet Herc) has arrived. For those of you that have seen her, you will certainly agree that the end product however far outweighs the frustrations that were encountered along the route. For those of you who couldn’t join us for the launch function on the 17th of April, you are invitied to try and stop in, when next you are at the office, and take a look.
aclas ACLAS Global
pair capability for ATR leading edge de-ice boots. ACE has overcome the industry’s historic long lead times for leading Edge repairs by setting up a co-operation with ACLAS. ACLAS has become the distributor for Azure, who manufacture the replacement leading Edge boots. ACE now has a full set of ATR72 leading edges on the shelf ready for use by ACE or ACLAS customers.
The plane in Spain is yet another gain ACE has become the maintenance arm of a new start-up airline in Spain. Helitt Líneas Aéreas operates domestic routes as well as international routes from Spain’s Malaga Airport. ACE has set up a line station in Malaga to carry out all of the line maintenance operations for the airline, with the heavy maintenance
ACLAS has commenced 2012 with continuing strong sales and support for its ATR operators and their fleets. Also promising has been the improvement in sales for the Shorts 360 fleets. New contracted customers have resulted in a broader global diversity of customer base. We have taken delivery of an inventory of rotable components from EI-SLM. The Zodiac distributorship business has doubled. Our marketing team has been in Singapore (2012 Singapore Airshow), Santiago (FIDAE 2012), Kenya (AFRA 2012), Dallas (MRO Americas), London (AP&M 12)
work being done at ACE’s Edinburgh facility.
ACE keeps an eye on the fuel Airworthiness Directive AD 20090424-2A issued by EASA requires
Thank you and congratulations to everyone involved with the Combi project, both directly and indirectly, in getting the “impossible” done so quickly. For those not directly involved with the project, our dilemma was that the aircraft was delayed out of conversion, for various reasons, at the same time that we were faced with a very tight timeline to have the
and Vilnius (MRO Eastern Europe) meeting customers and promoting ACLAS and the ASL Aviation Group. We have completed a significant IT infrastructure upgrade, and started to implement a new inventory system. Last but not least: ACLAS was nominated as one of the top 5 spares providers at a recent trade awards show in London. We have noted a more competitive market this year, and our team is working closely with our customers and suppliers to retain market share and keep our margins.
to improve FeederWatch, our customer portal The above actions, aimed to bolster efficiency and improve Customer Experience, also support Challenge 500 by reducing time spent on non-productive tasks to allow staff to concentrate on delivering outstanding service to our customers and developing future business ideas.
aircraft placed on to the South African CAA register as well as our AOC, so as to enable us to meet a fixed contract bid date. At first review the challenge of the restricted time frame seemed impossible. However the true Safair “will do” attitude prevailed and all deadlines were achieved despite an even further reduced time frame as a result of a technical delay in positioning the aircraft back to Johannesburg. Once again to all involved thank you and well done for “making this happen”. The Jerc has already been bid on a long term United Nations contract and was successful; the contract started end May 2012. The aircraft is positioned in Entebbe where it commenced active service.
In January a new, dedicated IT Domain was commissioned for the Southend office. The installation of new high capacity servers with Cloud backend storage together with a new
Domain service contract has provided ACLAS with a new and powerful platform to continue its IT upgrades. In May, ACLAS selected a new inventory control system to replace its legacy CAFAM system. The rollout will take four months, and will provide ACLAS and ASL with significant improvements in stock control, cost control and distribution.
a specialist boroscope inspection of the ATR 42 and 72 fuel tanks. This specialised task is usually carried out by a team of Engineers from the manufacturers. ACE has embarked on a program of carrying out the Boroscope Inspections for customers at Edinburgh and now for other
maintenance facilities who do not have the capability. As one of the few MROs in the world with this capability, ACE has already received requests from Jetworks in India and CSA Technics in Prague to perform the inspection of aircraft at its facilities.