Aircraft Maintenance Technology

APR 2017

The aircraft maintenance professional's source for technological advancements, maintenance alerts, news, articles, events, and careers

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AIRLINE 56 APRIL 2017 AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY THE WHYS AND HOWS OF THE TRANSITION I spoke with Martin Apsel-von zur Gathen, head of network management at SWISS, who detailed the ways in which the tran- sition was being handled and what the expected benefits were for SWISS. The Lufthansa Group has most recently aligned its network management among the four hubs, Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, and Vienna. Long-haul planning is performed in "virtual teams" consisting of a planner from each hub, whose task is to align their network offer with the goals of the group as a whole. By doing so, competitive advantage is optimized. Taking San Francisco, my home airport as an example, Lufthansa operates an A380 in the early afternoon to Frankfurt and a late evening A340-600 to Munich while either a SWISS A340-300 or B-777- 300ER leaves early evening for Zurich. This is supplemented for much of the year with twice-daily flights by joint venture partner United, operating an afternoon and evening flight to Frankfurt. Ideally, a Star Alliance flyer should be able to connect anywhere in the world by utilizing this buffet of choices. When asked why SWISS chose the Boeing 777-300ER (77W) rather than the cutting edge technology of the 787 or A350 series, Martin explains that the airline began by searching for a 300+ seat aircraft that met the payload and range performance required by SWISS. Along with passenger considerations, SWISS continues to generate significant revenue from cargo, and therefore any aircraft chosen needed to meet full payload requirements over the airline's longest routes. Both the 787-9 and A350-1000 would have been payload restricted on some routes over a portion of the year and the A340-600, while meeting the airline's needs, was a technological step backwards. The new 77X was too long a wait and therefore the 77W hit the sweet spot in terms of require- ments — and it was readily available within the desired timespan. In terms of available seat cost, the 77W will offer a 20 to 25 percent reduction in comparison with the A340-300, with most of that reduction found in fuel cost and maintenance. It also allows SWISS to grow its capacity on prime routes by boosting seats from 219 on the A340-300 to 340 on the 77W (55 percent) without adding additional aircraft. Efficiency is further boosted by the fact that SWISS has one of the world's highest utilization rates for its long haul aircraft — about 18 hours per day. SOME A340-300S WILL REMAIN But the 77W is not a one-to-one replacement for the A340. Currently, there are 10 77Ws to be added: six are currently in the fleet, while four will be added in 2017/18, clearly short of the 15 A340-300s recently operated. SWISS will continue to operate the A340 for the foreseeable future as some of the aircraft are relatively new and will continue to fill the needs for interconti- nental routes with lower seat demand. The airline's six leased A340s will be the first to leave the fleet. Three of the owned aircraft will be transferred to Edelweiss Air, a Swiss/Lufthansa Group subsidiary which operates scheduled seasonal services to 40 worldwide destinations. C SERIES PLUSSES At the other end of the spectrum is the CS100, designated to replace the RJ100 fleet on European routes. Aircraft were to be integrated at the rate of approximately one per month through 2018 and the Avro fleet was to be reduced in a similar fashion. However, unforeseen delays in the delivery of the aircraft's Pratt & Whitney PW1524G engines has meant that aircraft are arriving at a slower rate than anticipated. The airline has 30 units on order and the first 10 will be the CS100 model (125 seats) with aircraft 11-25 being the larger CS300 (145 seats). The final configuration of the last five will be deter- mined at a later stage based on market conditions and demand. Unit cost reduction from the ARJs is anticipated to be around 25 percent and 10 to 15 percent with respect to the A320 fleet. The trip cost is seen to be about 15 percent below that of the ARJs and 10 to 15 percent below that of the A320. The C Series aircraft will offer both Business and Economy service but will not have fixed compartments. For Business Class, two of the five seats per row will be unoccupied. THE PAST, an Avro, and the future, a B77W pass in Zurich. SWISS

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