AerTool sees access to aircraft engine stands, tooling and and maintenance equipment one of the key challenges for African airlines

AerTool sees access to cost-effective aircraft maintenance equipment as a key challenge of airline operations in Africa – aviation’s next frontier.

Even before the corovanirus pandemic it was recognised that the African aviation market’s growth lagged behind the rest of the world. Despite a growing citizen population and advanced economic prospects, Africa remained an aviation market challenged by lagging infrastructure and aeropolitical restrictions. This is reflected in the statistics produced by CAPA (Centre for Aviation) where 40% of seats capacity (2019) is offered by non-African airlines in the region. Moves have been made to liberalise flying agreements but this has yet to pick up momentum.

Nevertheless, airline startups continue to arise in Africa despite the coronavirus pandemic. Recently Simple Flying reported on new African airline startups Webclift Airways and Lift growing in prominence. This raises the question – once an airline start up begins flying routes and finds itself away from main base how will they support the aircraft and its engines? Even for well established airlines such as Royal Air Maroc rely heavily on Africa-Europe routes to maintain international traffic volumes which often results in flying to locations away from mainbase. This presents extra logistical challenges for airline engineering teams when AOGs and unplanned maintenance events occur.

AerTool recognises these challenges for all operators, especially those based on the African continent. Flying thin routes away from main base creates added risk that an engine maintenance event without maintenance support nearby; creating costly consequences of procuring aircraft engine stands and tooling. Traditionally airlines have to invest millions of dollars in initial provisioning (ie: aviation equipment purchases to support an aircraft or engine type) and this inventory ends up stuck at main base which becomes inadequately located in an AOG scenario.

To solve this problem, AerTool has established a growing network of aircraft engine stands, lifting beams, boostrap equipment and engine change kits to support operators around the globe with their requirements. Customers and subscribers of the AerTool Network benefit from access to over 300 aircraft engine stands across Americas, Middle East and Europe regions to support their operations.

The AerTool Network service provides the benefits of equipment ownership without the cost. AerTool is able to work with customers to establish their fleet management requirements for planned maintenance to secure engine stands ahead of shop visit / engine change events so they are assured of access to this equipment ahead time. Customers of the AerTool Network are able to access engine stands without the need to store the equipment or maintain it in the servicable condition – taking away cost and administrative burden.

We look forward to welcoming the airlines of Africa, new and established, to the AerTool Network very soon!

For more information please contact hello@aertool.com.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Got any questions? Send a message.