Fast 5: Jet Parts Engineering Boosts PMA Portfolio

Jet Parts Engineering, a Seattle-based provider of parts manufacturer approval (PMA) parts, designated engineering representative (DER) repairs and MRO services, acquired the PMA division of Mitchell Aircraft in October 2024. President John Benscheidt spoke with Aviation Week Network about the acquisition and his perspectives on industry acceptance of PMAs and DERs.

What does Jet Parts Engineering’s recent acquisition of Mitchell PMA bring to your business in terms of proposed market share and customer base?

Mitchell PMA has done a great job building a customer base of commercial airlines and independent MROs. By joining Jet Parts Engineering (JPE), we will combine more PMA parts and DER repairs offered within the JPE portfolio to bring more cost savings and part availability to their customers, along with the JPE customer base. In addition, we’ll be able to leverage the Mitchell PMA development team to provide more solutions for the aftermarket.

Amidst the industry’s current supply chain challenges, what trends are you seeing for PMAs and DERs?

Right now, part availability is a major factor driving PMA part and DER repair demand. Historically, part cost was the driver for OEM alternatives, but with the continued supply chain disruptions, MRO turn times are being negatively affected. It’s hard to ignore a PMA part that is available immediately or a DER repair that can salvage a part, when the alternative is to wait an additional 60 days for OEM parts to be in stock.

In your view, what is the optimum inventory strategy for PMAs, considering OEMs and lessors tend to discourage them?

Acceptance of PMA is not about safety or reliability, but economics. In the past, OEMs would use fear, uncertainty and doubt as tactics to dissuade airlines from using PMA parts, but since it has been proven that PMAs are just as safe and reliable, airlines aren’t being persuaded by such arguments anymore. They have been building PMA into their supply chain strategy to directly help their financial results. OEMs are still discouraging alternative parts, but airlines need to maintain a competitive market with their suppliers to ensure that innovation and service levels don’t stagnate, so they have been pushing back on OEM restrictions.

Airlines also need to push back against leasing agreements that restrict PMA, and we’re seeing more of this happening. Lessors fear that residual values will be affected in a market split on PMA acceptance. With more airlines demanding PMA, and the fact that the PMA parts have been proven to have the same or better reliability as the OEMs, the residual value argument begins to fall apart. Airlines need to remember that they are the customer to the lessors; this gives them a lot of say in what they can ask for when entering into a lease agreement.

What sort of management changes can we expect from Mitchell PMA Are you making any additional investment in the business, and will it keep its brand identity?

The management team of Mitchell PMA is staying on with the company so the transition will be seamless. JPE has plans to invest in Mitchell PMA to continue their growth and development of PMA parts. They have a great team and quality of work that their customers appreciate, so we want to maintain that brand recognition and reputation they’ve built.

How will this acquisition impact your other component and MRO services?

Our goal is to make aircraft maintenance more affordable, and we do this by delivering high service levels and offering competitive prices. When we look at companies to partner with, we always keep that goal in mind, and Mitchell PMA is no different. JPE can leverage the portfolio of companies specializing in PMA parts, DER repairs and component MRO services to get creative with our solutions and provide our customers with more options.