.png)
The passenger air travel industry has changed significantly in the last couple of months. This might be the greatest understatement in history; global air travel is down about 65% in the 2nd quarter, and capacity will be down about 40% in the 3rd quarter, and up to 10% in the 4th quarter.
By now, we are all painfully aware of the COVID-19, commonly known as “Coronavirus”, which has been deemed a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March. Since then, the aviation market as a whole has, well, completely tanked to be perfectly honest. It was flying at a critical angle of attack, and now is in an unbroken stall, maybe even a spin. This is a critical and honest appraisal of the MRO industry, as well as associated support markets (namely GSE), and where they are headed by the numbers.
The global aviation market is feeling a heavy burden from the COVID-19 outbreak. Here’s an outlook of what’s to come.
Aerospace is a technology-driven discipline which has largely been locked into archaic maintenance practices and technologies, practices which are largely unchanged over the course of the last six or seven decades. Visual inspections on aircraft which are roughly the length of a football field can take hours, and it is impossible to fully inspect the surface of the aircraft.
Like any industry, those in the aviation industry must adapt and improve every year to remain competitive, help passengers travel safely, increase profits, and streamline manufacturing and operations. However, as our society becomes more digitized in the 21st century, stakeholders in the industry must continue to adapt with them. You may use some of this technology today, but we believe some of the tips below will become more mainstream in the year to come.
Aircraft tugs are real modern marvels, moving aircraft weight hundreds of tons all day, every day. These movements come with very real risks every single time, and we are going to look at those now.
Remotely operated and autonomous ground support equipment (GSE), particularly aircraft tugs, represent a valuable alternative to traditional units. Military users have long been users of traditional GSE, but does this hamper operational requirements and demands?
Whatever is accurate or inaccurate regarding fuel consumption and carbon footprints, a shift away from fossil fuels towards electrical power generation, whether total electrical power generation or hybrid power, is inevitable.
Bitcoin. Ethereum. Litecoin. Cryptocurrencies have taken the global economy by storm over the past decade. But they are far from anything to do with aviation, right? Especially support equipment? Well, this is proving to be an altogether incorrect assumption; the technology which powers and secures cryptocurrencies is proving to be very versatile evolving technology for all sorts of ventures. For the sake of aircraft ground support equipment owners, particularly those with a fleet of GSE.
We have all likely heard of the comparative cost of preventative maintenance versus equipment failure from neglect, but what do the actual numbers look like?
We will get back to you within one business day. (Probably quicker, we’re German.)