Tulsa World: First Wave buys planes to use for spare parts

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First Wave buys planes to use for spare parts
The company is also hiring mechanics and managers.

A Boeing 767 purchased from Aerosvit Ukrainian Airlines sits at the Oklahoma Spaceport at Burns Flat, near Elk City in western Oklahoma. The plane is one of two commercial jets bought by Bristow-based First Wave MRO Inc. Courtesy

By D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer
Published: 11/5/2009 2:22 AM
Last Modified: 11/5/2009 4:26 AM

First Wave MRO Inc., the Bristow aerospace manufacturer and repair organization, is hiring 10 aircraft mechanics and managers and a half dozen contract mechanics to provide the company an aircraft components spares department, executives said.

First Wave, founded in 1992, employs 100 people at a 226,000-square-foot plant in Bristow and several locations in the Tulsa area. It also operates a 250-employee plant in Taubate, Brazil.

The new workers are being added to dismantle, refurbish (if necessary), catalog and store components from a 19-year-old Boeing 757-200 and a 20-year-old 767-300 First Wave has purchased, said CEO Ben Clark.

"We are going to tear them down and overhaul the structural components and interiors and keep them for spares," Clark said.

The company purchased the 767 from Aerosvit Ukrainian Airlines in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine. The 757 was acquired from Avianca, the Bogota, Colombia-based airline.

The two aircraft have been flown from the Ukraine and Colombia during the last two weeks to the Oklahoma Spaceport at Burns Flat, near Elk City in Washita County. First Wave has leased a 32,000-square-foot hangar there where contract mechanics will tear down the planes into component parts.

The spare parts are key for a company like First Wave, which manufactures, maintains, repairs and overhauls aircraft components for companies such as American Airlines, Embraer of Brazil, British Airways, China Southern Airlines and Qantas Airways of Australia.

"Spares are critical because passengers can't wait at the gate for hours while airlines find one," Clark said.

In the increasingly fragmented aircraft repair business, spare parts and components are separating the front-runners from the also-rans, industry officials say.

At American Airlines' 3.3-million-square-foot Tulsa Maintenance & Engineering Center, American operates a large parts warehouse.

Bizjet International, 3515 N. Sheridan Road, which provides aircraft overhaul services for business and corporate aircraft, maintains an inventory of spare engines to keep clients' aircraft flying while Bizjet mechanics overhaul the original equipment.

In First Wave's case, the engines are not included in the purchased spares from the two Boeing jets, Clark said.

Included in the components First Wave is acquiring, Clark said, are engine thrust reversers; nose cowls; doors; rudders; flaps; wing leading edge slats; aelerons; elevators; spoiler panels and more.

"We will take apart anything that can be reused from the fuselage," Clark said. "The rest — the shell — will be recycled."

With thousands of U.S. commercial aircraft parked in the desert of several Western states after airlines grounded older and less fuel efficient aircraft in the wake of last year's fuel price spike, airlines are reducing in-house repair capabilities.

Most U.S. carriers — not including American Airlines — are outsourcing aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul work to third-party providers like First Wave.

In three separate investigations since 2003, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General reported outsourcing increased to 71 percent of heavy airframe maintenance checks in 2007 among nine major U.S. carriers, up from 34 percent four years earlier.

"These spares are going to generate a lot of work for us," Clark said. "Our company is a real up-and-comer. We're ready to compete with the big guys.

"These spares give me the capability to serve a customer who doesn't have the capacity to send me a unit off the plane and wait 28 days for me to repair it."

D.R. Stewart 581-8451
don.stewart@tulsaworld.com By D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer

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	Report Comment planespotter, (11/6/2009 6:50:05 PM) I just don't get why US airlines are allowed to outsource important maintenance work like this. Good for AA for keeping it in house and supporting US jobs.
	Report Comment FS, Broken Arrow (11/8/2009 7:16:27 AM) "Most U.S. carriers — not including American Airlines — are outsourcing aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul work to third-party providers like First Wave." ________________________________ As usual, D. R. Stewart is not telling the entire story. While there are a few domestic MROs who rework US based aircraft ($25k - $35k jobs), most of the major airlines, Southwest included, use out-of-country MROs (Honduras, Hong Kong, Mexico, etc., $5k - $15k jobs), their own mechanics typically used for line operations at airports only. It would seem US based airline executives would prefer to not use American labor while enriching themselves. I certainly hope this company will pay their people a decent wage, at least $20k above the federal poverty level.
	Report Comment FS, Broken Arrow (11/8/2009 7:32:47 AM) planespotter, (11/6/2009 6:50:05 PM) I just don't get why US airlines are allowed to outsource important maintenance work like this. Good for AA for keeping it in house and supporting US jobs. __________________________ With an alias like "planespotter", one would think you're reasonably well informed re: why things happen in the aviation industry. Evidently that's not the case. It's really rather simple - the FAA is bought and paid for by the major airlines - having a few congressmen/senators in your pocket doesn't hurt matters either when you're looking for favorable rulings. So far, the foreign repair stations are subject to twice-a-year FAA inspections (with notice) and no drug testing requirements as is required of all us airline personnel in a safety sensitive position (it's a shame the airlines executives aren't subject to this requirement as few could pass a drug test). Have no fear - under the direction its CFO Horton, I feel American's execs are working overtime to enable the failure its US maintenance facilities - Tulsa would be gone now if it weren't for the EPA grandfathered plating shop and the inability to secure a permit for a new one in Texas.

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