Axel Mueller, general manager with Lufthansa Technik in Tulsa, Okla., serves as chairman of the Avionics Maintenance Conference (AMC), an air-transport organization sponsored by the ARINC Industry Activities division. During his two years as chairman, Mueller has overseen dramatic change, as AMC transitioned to the new business model of a self-sustaining membership organization and evolved with changes in the avionics maintenance market. In a recent interview with Bill Carey, editor of sister publication Avionics, Mueller discussed changes in the airline maintenance industry.

Q: Could you summarize the history of AMC, the members of the organization and your mission?

A: AMC is an air-transport Industry Activity organized by Aeronautical Radio. The objectives of AMC are to promote reliability and reduce operating and lifecycle costs in air-transport avionics. This is done by approving maintenance and support techniques through the exchange of technical information. The AMC consists of representatives from the technical leadership of our air-transport avionics maintenance community.

Q: What are the major trends in airline maintenance, and how is AMC changing to stay relevant?

A: Airlines increasingly are no longer doing in-house maintenance on avionics and are subcontracting their repair work to outside maintenance organizations, which are not necessarily the OEMs. A lot of external work is going to MROs, either airline MROs — former airline shops that became their own independent organization — or any independent maintenance organizations. Avionics maintenance is no longer considered part of the core business, or it can be provided at lower-cost externally. This has developed since the early nineties, which now strongly points to a maintenance market moving toward an open and competitive MRO business. Maintenance issues as discussed at AMC are more often discussed now between MROs, representing their airline customer, and the OEMs, also without the airline being present at the meeting. The key element at AMC is the open forum. The open forum should promote a culture based on mutual respect, cooperation and minimal confrontations. The open forum as well should promote relationships among all constituent groups by educating delegates on the business background of specific questions, often asked by a member of one group, for example MROs, to a member of another group like OEMs. More and more, discussion issues are of the nature of product support issues. There is, of course, some potential for disagreement and conflict. The open forum has to serve as a moderator to ensure that conflicting interests are aired in a neutral forum.

Q: What is the benefit to airlines of joining and participating in AMC?

A: The benefits of AMC for airlines are long-term, successful economic management and operation of commercial aircraft. The activities at AMC, which stands for maintenance, and AEEC, which stands for equipment and system architecture standards, need to be viewed in a different, more holistic way. Actually, they are very close together. Simply, what is built today based on a new design has to be maintained tomorrow over the lifecycle of an aircraft program. A lot of valuable information flow is needed between those ARINC Industry Activity committees in both directions in order to optimize aircraft operation and maintenance.

Q: How do you accommodate the avionics OEMs with competing PMA parts manufacturers or MROs that want to take some of the aftermarket?

A: Well, I think we have to get acquainted with the fact that avionics maintenance is no longer just a business between airlines and OEMs. It has evolved into that open, competitive marketplace, where airlines are seeking the most economic solution to keeping their aircraft flying.

Q: How are airlines reacting to "avionics-by-the-hour" type arrangements? Are they increasingly participating in those arrangements?

A: An important fact is that the OEMs are only able to provide service mostly on a limited scope of LRUs whereas the MROs are able to offer nose-to-tail services on an aircraft. That may include any part number, any technology. Especially the smaller airlines and those not having their own maintenance facilities — for them "power-by-the-hour" contracts really will provide an interesting alternative to sending out components separately to numerous maintenance sources outside.