We recently shared some personal experience of acquiring a new company in Canada – a deal that was made without any personal contact or physical visits, and the related struggles which this entailed.

The new company became part of our largest independent line maintenance network. Such organization and infrastructure are demanding, especially nowadays. That’s why in this post I’d like to highlight some of the key challenges in the current market of line maintenance:

• Balancing the demand for highly skilled engineers.

A crucial aspect of the business is keeping the teams and pool of contractors on-station, despite inconsistent workloads. It covers a wide range of aspects, from actual operations to maintaining basic agreements/needs, along with the personal motivation for each individual.

• Faster than ever reaction times and ad hoc operations.

Different regulations and ever-changing restrictions in countries. Airlines and operators follow the windows of possibilities and line maintenance must be ready to get on board. Now, it is an inevitable necessity to be able to shift your personnel, assets, and tools via an on-demand basis.

• Travel restrictions and mandatory isolation periods.

Work scope and migration planning are being put to the test as well. Mandatory longer transition periods with a high risk of “eliminating” (for several weeks) crucial team members. Every counterpart in the business is facing such risks, from us to our clients and partners.

• Sales and commercial operations without season.

In Lithuania, there is a saying “Man plans, God Laughs”. We all had our plans and expectations, yet markets are still in the clutches of a global pandemic. Sales and commercial officers on all sides are trying to align their outlook. It is a trial for market players; are we able to commit despite uncertainty and deliver our promises upon recovery?

SO, THE MOST DYNAMIC PART OF THE MRO BUSINESS BECAME EVEN MORE FORCEFUL.

The key take-away, and advice if you will, would be – LEAN. There is no “silver bullet” to resolve individual challenges, yet there are proven practical examples in FL Technics, that proper processes and discipline helps. A lot.

Despite circumstances, our team moves forward supporting our clients and partners, while leveraging:

• Established LEAN processes, this is a major part of work, even in current times
• Individual and flexible problem solving (border-by-border, quite literally)
• Dependable IT solutions and remote work processes

At this point, we can monitor our business data on a daily basis and react in real-time, whenever we see issues, disruption or opportunities. In fact, current LEAN principles and processes enable us to act proactively and grant optimal turn around time (TAT), as well as reducing costs to our clients all over our present network of capabilities, especially in Line Maintenance.

Following a successful start of operations in late last year, FL Technics Engine Services, subsidiary of FL Technics, Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) organisation, announces the addition of more EASA Part 145 approved services for engine repair and maintenance.

In addition to previously available services that include Engine external examination, boreblending, engine preservation and storage services, QEC/LRU removal and installation, top case repair, and lease return services, FL Technics Engine Services will now offer its clients the full scope of crucial services for CFM56 family engines, related to Fan, Hot Section and Low-pressure turbine repair. The newly added services will be provided at a brand new fully authorised 3-bay quick-turn activities engine shop located at KUN/FEZ, next to FL Technics Base Maintenance hangar, offering clients a convenient one-stop-shop experience.

“We are extremely pleased with this achievement that would have not been possible without significant efforts from our team and Transport Competence Agency (TCA). The addition of services allows us to offer and deliver tailor-made solutions to customers in a timely and convenient manner,” commented Valerij Deveikis, Chief Executive Officer at FL Technics Engine Services.

“The addition of new services is a great development to our subsidiary FL Technics Engine Services and marks a major milestone towards strategic development of FL Technics as a leading one-stop-shop MRO service provider. We are proud of the experienced team that made this happen,” said Zilvinas Lapinskas, Chief Executive Officer at FL Technics.

FL Technics Engine Services quick turn engine shop opened its doors last year and now allows customers to optimise their engines’ Time on Wing (ToW), simultaneously optimising and minimising costs using the full scope of FL Technics Engine Services and FL Technics one-stop MRO services.

What is the strangest remote project that you’ve completed during the pandemic?

Sure, COVID19 brought a new ‘normal’ to our regular routines, from remote daily standups with teams to participation in virtual conferences. But there must be something truly out-of-scale?

To me it was the recent #M&A deal – the acquisition of Canadian ‘Wright International’ – that was scouted, evaluated, negotiated, and closed without any actual contact in person. There were no physical trips to the facilities, no face-to-face discussions, or any other ‘personal’ stages, which are usual in the normal merger and acquisition processes.

Scouting

Despite being future-driven, aviation is still, for the most part, a conservative industry. Historically, organizations and aerospace top management are somewhat used to highly cautious and personal ways of doing business.

This brings the first challenge; actually, finding the correct company keen to start the discussion towards the deal of a merger or acquisition.

Despite being the longest stage in the process, on this occasion, it became one of the most rewarding, as we got the opportunity to know better the highly respected founder of the company, who has been leading the operations of Wright International for decades. Mario boasts a bright and open mind that led our companies into the deal. And yes, we were communicating via virtual meetings and calls, while discussing all of the details and possible outcomes in between.

Evaluation

The company in question has decades of expertise in the aviation industry; providing dependable line maintenance services to major airlines and operators in Canada and North America. This meant that a lot of historical account information, logs of operations, archives, etc. were stored in physical formats and only partially digitized.

At this stage, the key challenge to the team and me was to collect all relevant data in order to evaluate and background-check the potential deal.

In addition, all the equipment, facilities and other tangible assets had to be evaluated remotely or by trusted partners abroad (via live video broadcasts and examinations). Despite the risk of partially ‘hidden’ information and remote assets, with the support of colleagues, including Daumantas Mockus, his team, and partners, we decided to proceed to the next stage.

Negotiation

Typically, when it comes to business deals in aviation we are used to negotiations 1-on-1, 3-on-3, or 1-on-15 in harder cases. It is challenging but yet rewarding.

The tone of voice, arguments in place, speed and pace, body language, and everything in between comes into play when playing for high stakes.

And now we have Zoom. Communication at a distance, without the actual look and feel of the person you are talking to. Losing, or partially reducing the key components in any negotiation makes the process even harder and longer, and necessitates the extensive use of emails and calls. Not to mention all of the technical issues, lag, and connection problems that may arise.

Closing

With SPA (Share and Purchase Agreement) in place, we reached the final stage of the merger – typically, it is a time when I would intrinsically know if both sides are happy with the outcome. Through personal meetings and the signing of the final signatures, it is easy to fully ascertain if all of the efforts have paid off. However, in this instance, the deal was closed virtually and without any physical presence whatsoever.

First time ever, I have approved final documents and welcomed a new member into our Group’s family, online and remotely.

This is the new normal, yet comes with the strange feeling of being a virtual milestone and a process that has now become part of the largest independent line maintenance network worldwide.

We are yet again exploring new frontiers and I will be sharing more updates in near future.