Aeromexico Ramps Up MRO for Growth

The stable of Boeing 737-700 and -800 narrowbodies based at Aeromexico’s Mexico City hub should see significant additions to their number in the next several years, and the engineering division that supports them is amping up for the change now. Pointing to the carrier’s “aggressive” growth plan, David Nakamura, senior VP for maintenance and engineering, says IT upgrades and increased concentration on Mexico City ops will be imperative to managing that growth.

Nakamura says Aeromexico already has begun preparing for the Boeing 787, five of which it has on order. The carrier announced plans to lease three 787-8s from International Lease Finance Corp. in June 2006, and it bolstered that with an order for two more -8s of its own in November 2006. Nakamura says that a lot remains to be done support-wise, even though Aeromexico does not expect to receive the aircraft until next year.

“There are many preparations to be made during 2011, especially in the area of IT infrastructure and maintenance and engineering process redesign,” he says. “IT infrastructure is definitely an area of interest. We need to update our MRO IT and consider the coming 787s to be an excellent opportunity because this airplane demands new technologies and processes.”

The carrier also may add pre-owned aircraft to its fleet. Nakamura says it plans to make adjustments to its core fleet of 737-700s and -800s, which he describes as “a model with high demand and less availability in the market.” However, the fleet changes will put added pressure on maintenance and engineering to retain its dispatch reliability.

“We may be bringing in airplanes with different configurations and this increases the complexity of maintenance and operation,” he says. “This also demands some additional investment, be it in standardization efforts or additional inventory.”

These changes also may bring opportunities to widen Aeromexico’s revenue from third-party maintenance. Today this work primarily consists of airframe heavy maintenance, Nakamura says, but the future may bring new production lines.

“We have a solid performance history in this area but have been constrained by the lack of additional hangar space [in Mexico City],” he says. “We will now have the possibility of expanding this operation.”