`Trust But Verify' Is JetBlue Approach to Outsourced Maintenance

JetBlue's philosophy is that heavy maintenance is a business in and of itself, worthy of specialized commitment. That's one reason they have chosen to outsource that component of their maintenance to companies they refer to as partners.

At JetBlue Airways Corporation, the philosophy is simple: the airline does the flying, as that is its area of expertise, and the heavy maintenance is contracted out to companies that specialize in that kind of work.

Through this philosophy, the airline's own technicians perform the A-checks for routine maintenance, but the heavy work, the C-checks, is done by external maintenance companies.

Between this simple statement and the actual work performed by these companies is an attitude of partnership, and a host of checks and balances to assure the carrier that it is getting quality work.

Recall that JetBlue's use of outsourced maintenance was criticized by newspaper columnist Harold Meyerson recently (see AM, Nov. 2005, p. 55).

"This is not like a car dealership, where I drop my car off and come back later to pick it up," said Michael Kordys, JetBlue's director of quality. "The companies that perform heavy maintenance for JetBlue are more like partners."

And getting to be a partner with JetBlue is not so simple. When companies express an interest in doing heavy maintenance for JetBlue, the carrier first sends a team to the facility, and this team produces a "score card" covering all aspects of the maintenance operation, including expertise with the aircraft to be maintained to the condition ofemployee locker room (see box page 19).

The locker room is looked at to get insight into how the maintenance facility treats its employees.

The scorecard evaluates a maintenance facility's capability and its culture. "At this stage, we do not look at price," said Kordys. "We want to partner with a team that is highly skilled and motivated and enjoys what they do."

Searching for maintenance partners

The scorecard serves as the basis for determining which negotiations will be continued with contractors and serves to eliminate any contractor not meeting JetBlue's standards.

Kordys explained, "We work to develop a business plan with the C-check providers."

"Heavy maintenance is a task in and of itself, a business separate from airline operations, involving hangars, technicians, and so forth," added Frank Buratti, JetBlue's director of line and heavy maintenance.

Presently, JetBlue contracts with Air Canada Technical Services (ACTS) in Winnipeg, Canada, and with TACA Aeroman in San Salvador, located in El Salvador. Part of the reason they were selected is that the national carriers in these countries also operate the Airbus A320, which comprises the bulk of JetBlue's feet, and therefore they are familiar with the airplane's maintenance philosophy as well as any unique quirks with the aircraft.

Frank Buratti, director of line and heavy maintenance.

JetBlue presently operates 86 A320s, with 156 passenger seats, and eight of the new Embraer EMB-190s, which feature 100 passenger seats. During this year, the carrier will take delivery of 17 more A320s and 17 more EMB-190s. The carrier is in fact the launch customer for the EMB-190, which will allow it to serve smaller markets where the A320 is too large, and to augment the A320 in those markets where greater frequency is needed. The A320s are on average about 2.7 years old, with the high-time aircraft about 6 years old. All told, a fairly young fleet of A320s free of the problems afflicting really old aircraft, such as corrosion to the structure or degraded wire insulation.

The EMB-190s are obviously new aircraft, still under warrantee, and heavy maintenance is not yet an issue.

The A320s undergo C-checks at both the Canadian and El Salvador facilities. "We regard the ACTS and TACA maintenance facilities as business partners, and we do not use the term `contractor,' " said Buratti. This is in keeping with JetBlue's corporate philosophy, in which all employees are referred to as "crewmembers," not just the flight crew.

For aircraft going in for C-checks, approximately 50 percent go to TACA and 50 percent go to ACTS. "We look at the schedule and where the airplane can best flow through the work," Buratti explained.

For example, a Florida-based airplane would most probably go to the Central America facility, while a New York based airplane would go to Canada. "It depends upon the fit," Buratti said. For example, if there is an opening at the Canada facility, a Florida-based JetBlue A320 may fly there for its C-check. Both the El Salvador and Canadian facilities are equally qualified, JetBlue officials maintained.

Trust but verify

The quality of the work is validated every step of they way. A JetBlue delegation is present when the airplane rolls into the facility for maintenance, and it remains on site until the aircraft rolls out. "We don't want a work stoppage; we want the airplane back in productive service," said Buratti.

The on-site team consists of 3-4 JetBlue crewmembers made up of maintenance and materiel representatives and quality control (QC) inspectors.

Buratti said "every page" of a work package is audited by the JetBlue team, once by the maintenance representative and then a second time by the QC inspector(s).

Kordys added that random, unannounced spot inspections are also conducted. "Basically, we look over the technician's shoulder, making sure the work is done right," he said.

In addition to these "checks and balances," JetBlue quality assurance (QA) staff performs audits throughout the year.

Moreover, there is a steady flow of reports to the airline's New York headquarters. There are daily status reports, especially of conditions or glitches that might delay the airplane's return to service, and a daily conference call is made to headquarters by the on-site JetBlue team to coordinate the work.

John Albert, director of engineering.

A high number of the technicians at both the Central America and Canadian facility are licensed airframe and propulsion (A&P) mechanics, or the equivalent.

Language issues have not proven to be a problem, according to Buratti. "Our task cards are in English, and we look for English-language proficiency in out initial evaluation," he said.

For the aircraft and engines, original equipment manufactured (OEM) spare parts are used.

"For the airplane, 99.9 percent of spares are OEM; the only thing you might see that's PMA is a latch for an overhead bin," explained Buratti. For engines, 100 percent of the spare parts come from the OEM.

Engines are maintained on a power-by-the-hour basis. "We came up with a detailed plan of what we wanted," explained Kordys. "We looked at all options, to include power-by-the-hour or parts and material, and we invited the top engine maintainers to come in here; we looked at all options during several days of intense discussions, and we decided the `power-by-the hour' was the best business plan for JetBlue."

The A320s are equipped with International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500 powerplants, and these are maintained by MTU.

To reduce or minimize the hazard posed by foreign object damage, engine change kits come in prepackaged foam, and the part removed goes into the foam to account for everything removed from the engine.

Michael Kordys, director of quality.

The A320 has had a problem with engine cowling latching. Some of the latches have come unhooked in flight, resulting in cowling and other damage. For this problem, Airbus is installing redesigned latches on its current production aircraft, and older airplanes are having the modified latching installed on the line.

"We painted the latches to ensure an unsecured condition could be easily recognized, and a second signature was required to verify that the latches were properly secured," said Buratti. This was a temporary expedient; all of JetBlue's aircraft have now been modified with the redesigned latches.

For the fly-by-wire A320, work on the flight controls is a required inspection item (RII), requiring a second set of eyeballs to validate the work. "This person is separate from the job, and inspects all aspects of the job completed," Kordys said. Recall that Lufthansa experienced a mis-wired A320 sidestick controller in 2001 that resulted in aileron movement on the captain's controller that was opposite of that desired. This was not caught before the airplane was returned to service and almost caused a crash on takeoff, the situation being saved by the first officer designating his side stick in control and righting the aircraft before the left wingtip struck the ground (see AM, April 2005, p. 20).

Regarding the emergency landing in September 2005 of a JetBlue A320 with the nosegear cocked 90 degrees to the logitudinal axis of the airplane, the problem is under intense investigation. "Airbus and the National Transportation Safety Board are working on a root cause analysis, and we started our inspections even before the airworthiness directive [AD] came out," Buratti said.

He was referring to AD 2005-24-06, issued in November 2005 requiring landing gear functionality inspections.

Minimizing MELs

Regarding minimum equipment list (MEL) items, most are resolved during line maintenance. However, if the aircraft is about to undergo a C-check, a maintenance action to resolve a MEL may be incorporated into that work.

"Generally, about one in five aircraft has on open MEL, and it's fixed within six hours," declared John Albert, JetBlue director of engineering. The 6-hour figure is an average, and MEL's are resolved anywhere from 2 hours to 5 or 6 days.

"Basically, we don't do MEL extensions, we don't run down the clock," said Kordys. "A MEL item always gets fixed."

As a result of its aggressive work on A-checks, the partnership for outsourced maintenance, and the general reluctance to tolerate open or unresolved MELs, JetBlue officials claim they have the highest utilization in North America of the A320, averaging 11.8-11.9 hours per day, compared to an A320 average of 10 hours. In addition, JetBlue claims a dispatch rate of 99.5 percent, as compared to an overall Airbus A320 average of 99.2 percent.

While JetBlue is pleased with the A320 product support it receives from Airbus, with two Airbus officials assigned to the airline full-time, Buratti said he'd like to see more health monitoring of aircraft systems in flight, for air conditioning, pneumatic and other systems.

"The goal is to move more maintenance into scheduled work," he said.