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Airline Groundings Put Spotlight on Maintenance Outsourcing

Posted on: Thursday, 27 March 2008, 09:00 CDT

Airline groundings put spotlight on maintenance outsourcing -- Imagine being able to go online to check the safety record of the airplane on which you're booking a seat.

That's one idea that's occurred to Kevin Mitchell as he's watched the latest round of stepped-up airplane inspections by federal regulators.

"You'd know where your aircraft was last inspected and repaired," said Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, an advocacy group for business travelers.

It's these types of demands for accountability that are confronting airlines as their maintenance operations face additional scrutiny. Critics, including the Business Travel Coalition, say the cost-cutting move by airlines to outsource maintenance requires closer regulatory review.

The latest round of controversy about aircraft maintenance heated up earlier this month when the Federal Aviation Administration slapped Southwest Airlines with a $10.2 million fine after inspectors found that a number of planes hadn't undergone proper checks for fuselage cracks. Southwest subsequently suspended plans to outsource some maintenance work to a contractor in El Salvador.

A week later, the FAA launched a review of maintenance records at all U.S. airlines, and in recent days the news of groundings has just kept coming.

American Airlines launched the latest -- and most dramatic -- move Wednesday in canceling about 300 flights so crews could inspect wiring in its fleet of MD-80 aircraft after an FAA audit. Later Wednesday, Delta Air Lines said

it may scrub some flights while rechecking more than 130 similar jets.

Eagan-based Northwest Airlines, an aggressive outsourcer of maintenance work, has yet to be caught up in the latest wave of groundings. "We have full compliance with all the rules and regulations regarding the FAA," Northwest spokesman Dean Breest said Wednesday.

Northwest Airlines stepped up its use of outside maintenance services after a bitter labor dispute in 2005 with mechanics represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association. Only 550 of the 4,400 workers who walked off the job that year eventually returned to work at the carrier, said Mike Klemm, trustee of AMFA Local 33. Only about 67 are dues-paying union members.

The rest of the jobs were contracted out or filled with replacement workers. He said the airline's Boeing 747 maintenance is now performed at bases in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Data collected by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology show Northwest spent $641 million on third-party aircraft maintenance in 2006, the most recent year for which data is available. That compared with $257 million Northwest spent in 2004. Delta, a larger airline, spent $467 million in outsourcing in 2006, up from $271 million two years earlier.

The FAA certifies almost 4,200 domestic and 700 foreign maintenance facilities. It has inspectors around the globe. But critics say that overseas, there are exceptions to personnel and security standards.

American Airlines still does much of its maintenance domestically. When the problems were found with the MD-80s recently, Mitchell said, the FAA had quick access to log books, engineers and all personnel. "This is the way it's supposed to be," he said.

U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation Committee, criticized the FAA in the wake of the Southwest fines this month, saying top FAA management had likely grown complacent, moving from its "vigorous enforcement of compliance toward a carrier-favorable, cozy relationship with the airlines."

He's scheduled a hearing for April 3 to examine "critical lapses in FAA oversight of the airlines," according to Oberstar's office.

Mitchell, of the Business Travel Coalition, is rallying colleagues to call on Congress to launch a full investigation of the FAA, arguing in a letter to travel industry members that inadequate FAA oversight "has become a corporate duty-of-care issue for those accountable for business travelers' welfare. The gap is a stunning one between what corporate senior managements perceive about aircraft maintenance and FAA oversight, and reality."

Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press

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