Mammoth Freighters And Aspire MRO Prep For 777 PTF Pipeline Growth

As Mammoth Freighters nears the finish line for certification of its Boeing 777 passenger-to-freighter conversions, the company is deploying several strategies to boost production efficiencies and capture market share.

Launched in late 2020 and backed by Fortress Investment Group, Mammoth is focused on passenger-to-freighter (PTF) conversions of Boeing 777-200LR and -300ER variants. The company has seven aircraft in various stages of production as it waits for supplemental type certificates (STC) regulatory administrative processes to conclude.

According to Brian McCarthy, Mammoth’s vice president of marketing and sales, the company expects to complete its build and begin flight testing of the 777-200LR in February, with STC issuance in the following months. The 777-300ER will come next; the company hopes certification will occur around August and service entry by October. At that point, McCarthy says Mammoth will “be delivering two or three airplanes in succession in a pretty quick manner” because of how many conversions it already has in production.

“We have built this program for some high levels of production capacity because this market is going to come to us in a pretty good bow wave of replacements over the next 4-5 years,” he says. “Then it will probably subside a little bit to more sane production levels, but we are definitely gearing toward making sure we capture as much market share in the front end of the program as possible.”

McCarthy notes that feedstock may be a bit challenging in the coming years due to “OEM indigestion.” He says that “has led to a whole bunch of 777-200 and -300ER as well as Airbus lease extensions, which have dried up the market slightly.” However, he says that Mammoth has been somewhat insulated from the near-term feedstock shortages by capturing a considerable number of 777-200LRs early.

McCarthy expects these feedstock shortages to last up to 2-3 years. “The airplanes won’t run out of cycles anytime soon,” he says. “These airplanes fly long-range, and they’re not necessarily getting into any situation where they would cycle out or get too old before their candidacy for conversion expires.

“A lot of our future customers are both passenger and cargo operators, which gives us access to possible feedstock that we would not normally have if it was just a pure cargo operator,” he explains. “Having that passenger airline component bolted to some of our customer campaigns is going to be very helpful for us.” McCarthy says Mammoth will prioritize potential customers with their own 777 feedstock “because they have the airplanes—it’s that simple.”

Mammoth has about 35 orders for conversions with customers including DHL and Avia Solutions Group. “Now that we’re getting closer to flight and STC, the interest is mounting,” McCarthy says. “Uncertainty overseas has caused our phone to ring a lot.”

Mammoth expects to be able to produce some 20 PTF conversions annually by 2026 between its conversion lines at Aspire MRO in Fort Worth and at STS Aviation in Manchester, England. To insulate itself from supply chain-related delays, McCarthy says the company selected nearly all its suppliers, vendors and raw materials from the U.S.

“I guess you could call us a ‘Buy American’ company, and it’s not because we don’t want to buy from foreign entities,” he says. “We just want to protect ourselves until [the conversion] is dialed in and what I would call a steady state program, and then we could certainly look at other suppliers and vendors out in the world. We will go shopping at some point, but for right now, we played it safe.”

SOLE FOCUS

Most of Mammoth’s conversion work is taking place in Fort Worth at Aspire MRO, which McCarthy says has become a “center of excellence” for 777s. “This program really did not need the distraction of other fleet types, customers or aircraft,” he adds.

McCarthy notes there are some “enormous efficiencies” from focusing on one fleet type, one type of training and ground support equipment, tooling, consumables and materials geared toward the 777. “The minute you start adding other fleet types . . . that pretty much sends your MRO costs into orbit.”

Despite an aim of achieving efficiencies, Mammoth and Aspire are not sparing costs to meet their high production goals. Since Aspire launched in 2022, it has grown to a staff of about 500 from around 30, and CEO Phil Bathurst aims to increase it to 700.

Because of the intricacies of the conversion process, Bathurst says approximately 95% of Aspire’s mechanics are focused on structures, so “just about everyone here has a minimum of five years’ experience.” The company partnered with labor specialist Launch Technical Workforce Solutions to find qualified talent, which included tapping skilled mechanics from abroad.

While the appeal of international talent often is related to their lower pay rates, Bathurst says he wanted to ensure an even playing field for all staff, so international mechanics are paid the same rate as American workers. He notes that this has brought an influx of “highly motivated, highly skilled mechanics,” including from other MROs in the U.S.

“We’re probably one of the higher-paying MROs in the country, and the reason is we’re more of a production facility than an MRO,” Bathurst says. “We see ourselves competing against Boeing and Spirit [AeroSystems] rather than HAECO and AAR.”

The greater workforce challenge, according to Bathurst, has been getting the right leaders in place and maintaining Aspire’s culture as it grows at a fast pace. Bathurst says the nature of Aspire’s work gives it a fairly low ratio between leads and mechanics, with some 10 mechanics for each lead, compared with what he says is a more typical ratio of 15 or 16 mechanics to one lead at other MROs.

Beyond staff, Aspire has invested significantly in equipment and technology. For instance, it designed custom ModTruss hydraulic work stands, which allow groups of mechanics to work simultaneously at several levels of an aircraft. The company is also paperless; each mechanic has a tablet to run software from Boeing and EmpowerMX.

“A lot of MROs look at, ‘How can we save money and what can we do here?’ ” Bathurst says. “But it’s really about efficiency and how quickly you can turn airplanes while being safe with quality. If you have to invest a little extra money to get the return, it’s almost always worth it.”

Aspire’s maintenance capabilities and large 1-million-ft.² facility have won significant interest from major U.S. carriers in the company’s heavy maintenance capacity, considering the industry’s current struggle to find maintenance slots. “One of our biggest challenges right now is turning down work without offending any airlines,” Bathurst says.

“Initially we thought we would do some lines of maintenance until we came up to speed and decided just to focus on [Mammoth’s 777 work],” he says. “Our plan is to go to three lines of heavy maintenance and three lines of mods in the future, potentially. We have to see how the mods go.”

McCarthy adds that Mammoth has enough business to fill Aspire’s facility. “You can build about two good-size C check crews that basically roll from airplane to airplane throughout the entire process,” he notes. “Some airplanes are more demanding than others in terms of their maintenance check requirements, but you don’t need six lines of C check people or heavy maintenance people—you need about two good, solid teams that can keep up with the six airplanes that are in the hangar because of the long duration of each aircraft.”

He says that this will likely increase as Mammoth ramps up to steady state levels, leading to higher demand for more heavy maintenance specialists.

Meanwhile, McCarthy says Mammoth is “moving aggressively” in the UK at STS Aviation to start its second conversion line. “We think that Manchester has the right culture, and we absolutely think their approach to managing the skills on these airplanes is spot on,” he says. “We’re taking a hard look at how they’re doing it because we are impressed with their approach to heavy modification.”