Podcast: What To Expect At MRO Americas 2025

Editors discuss major trends and topics they expect to hear about at this year’s MRO Americas 2025, such as workforce development, new technology initiatives and capacity challenges. They also share their insider tips for navigating the show.

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Transcript

Lee Ann Shay:

Welcome to the MRO podcast. I'm Lee Ann Shay, executive editor for MRO and business aviation for Aviation Week Network, and next week is Aviation Week's big MRO Americas Conference and Exhibition, which will be held in Atlanta April 8-10. We're obviously very excited about it and want to share some tips and things not to miss. My colleagues, Lindsay Bjerregaard, who's managing editor for MRO, and James Pozzi, our MRO editor for the EMEA region, are here with me. Lindsay and James, welcome.

Lindsay Bjerregaard:

Thanks Lee Ann.

James Pozzi:

Thanks Lee Ann.

Lee Ann Shay:

For starters, MRO Americas, as you all know, is a multifaceted event. We've got the MRO Americas Conference, the Military Aviation Logistics and Maintenance Symposium, MALMS on April 8-9. The Go Live! Theater, which is on the exhibition floor has packed sessions all three days, so definitely check that out. And about 90 teams will test their skills and knowledge at the Aerospace Maintenance Council's annual competition. And we've got a few more events that we'll mention a little bit. There are 1,035 exhibitors from 50 US states and 35 international countries, so we're expecting a big attendance as always. So to get us started, Lindsay and James, what do you expect the hottest topics will be next week?

Lindsay Bjerregaard:

So it seems like at MRO Americas, workforce always comes up in most of the sessions. And this year there are actually three different sessions devoted specifically to workforce topics. One of the big ones that's going to be coming up on Tuesday is a panel on finding solutions for the juniority problem. And when we say juniority, what that means is that there's a growing proportion of the MRO workforce who are young and inexperienced. That's driven partially by all of the retirements that happened during the pandemic and are still happening now. And then companies increased efforts to recruit new technicians. But what that results in is that there are a larger proportion of technicians with five or fewer years of experience. So for instance, I was at a conference the other week where one airline showed data about how 47% of their technicians are retirement ready, and around 35% now have less than five years of experience.

So I'm moderating that panel on Tuesday. We'll have panelists from AAR, Pratt & Whitney, MHIRJ, and Jets MRO. Sort of in that same vein, a couple of the different strategies that are being used to sort of help that juniority issue are apprenticeship programs and mentoring. So related to that, we have a couple sessions on apprenticeships and mentoring. One is the Welcome the Apprentice Session on Tuesday. And on that panel there are going to be students and new MRO hires sharing perspectives on what's working and what's not when it comes to training initiatives. And then on Tuesday, there's also going to be a session in the Go Live! Theater that I'm moderating about the power and importance of mentorship, and I'm going to be speaking with representatives from Amazon Air, Southwest Airlines and Mesa Airlines. So that's going to be a really good one. And there are some special events related to workforce that we will get to in a little bit.

But the one other topic that I am looking forward to, because there are a lot of sessions related to it, is technology. So at MRO Americas, there's going to be a panel on AI on Tuesday, one on cybersecurity also on Tuesday. Some companies are going to be hosting sessions about the technologies that they're working with. So Delta TechOps’ director of predictive technology and engineering will be presenting in the Go Live! Theater about AI and some of the other technologies they're using. And then Delta and Mainblades will be presenting a case study on Wednesday in the main conference about the drone-based aircraft inspections that they're doing. You can read more about that in the latest issue of Inside MRO that you can pick up at the show. But then beyond that, there will also be some interesting hosted sessions in the Go Live! Theater about technology from companies like Airbus, Boeing, GE Aerospace, Lufthansa Technik and BAE Systems. So a lot of interesting technology stuff on the docket.

Lee Ann Shay:

That sounds great, Lindsay. Thanks for all those inputs. James, what's your take?

James Pozzi:

Yeah, brilliant. Really looking forward to getting back to the U.S. to Atlanta. I think it's my 8th MRO Americas, but who's counting? So yeah, following on from Lindsay, this will come as no surprise. I fully expect the MRO supply chain to be a big theme as it was at last year's events, like every part of the world, this will come up frequently for the foreseeable, I think, and as it has done pretty much for the last 5 to 10 years. Last year we heard people say that material supply remains unpredictable. Some new parts from the OEM are unavailable and many repairs are taking longer than expected. And this is in the context of engines from AeroEngines Americas in January. This has got better slightly across the industry, but not massively. So, USM supply, particularly for the CFM56 and the V2500 hundred engines still a bit constrained.

And from what I've gathered recently, this remains so and has absolutely impacted the price of parts. There's big spikes there, parts vendors and some MROs are really noticing from the people I've spoken to recently. As a consequence, looking at the operators, we've heard more U.S. carriers are open to PMA use, and it'll be continued to see if this is developed from last year, and if this remains so as I feel it may be. So one bit of an interesting fact I had last year at MRO Americas that stood out was actually on the airframe side that a Boeing 737 next generation that were going for less than $1 million in 2023. Last year, they saw their prices moving up to doubling to $2 million, which is pretty remarkable really. It shows the demand for that asset. There has been a hope that price stability could be on the horizon, though that was a takeaway from last year.

So that's certainly something I'll be looking at for next week, particularly in parts, but also of course in those airframes and obviously engine assets, which I'm so interested in. Also, what is the retirement landscape? I know that's been quite sluggish and we've seen several North American companies in the last year be very active in buying assets for teardown, but how is that market moving forward and aid in the supply of USM? That's another consideration that I'll be heading into MRO Americas with. And now, not to state the obvious, but there is a massive maintenance demand in North America. It's the world's biggest region for MRO spend, a lot of activity there. A lot of the airlines all have growth plans seemingly, there are also some potential carrier mergers, particularly in the low-cost space, although we have seen some low-cost airlines build MRO capacity in recent years, they still tend to outsource their maintenance to third-party providers, and there will likely be a continuation of that.

Of course, they're not just going to change, rip up their strategies overnight and change. So yeah, that will drive obviously some work. And then there's obviously the larger full service carriers too. Amazingly, given the size and the scale of the country and the maintenance infrastructure capacity is an ongoing topic. And North America, as I mentioned before, is the world's largest MRO segment with the largest fleets. But despite this size, shops more often than not are full for airframe and engine maintenance. So, last year we have seen major expansions since the last MRO Americas with some of the big names over there, AAR, who I've mentioned, they've growing their operations in Miami and Oklahoma City. StandardAero got its San Antonio shop online. Even airlines are adding maintenance capacity. DHL Express, obviously has plans for Cincinnati. And Spirit, obviously ultra-low cost, but it has built a new facility in Houston.

So that's just a few of them. So, plenty of activity there. And of course, joint ventures and partnerships. I would expect some interesting things to be announced next week, whether it's distribution partners, new JVs or extended terms between companies that we often see one or two quite big ones that MRO America is being announced and I would expect similar this year. So, something to keep an eye out for. I couldn't possibly tell you what really. But yeah, watch your space and I'm sure we'll be the first ones to report it for aviationweek.com on our MRO channel.

Lee Ann Shay:

MRO America's event theme this year is shaping the future of aviation maintenance, which I think is very appropriate. We've got a lot of different events around this that Lindsay had hinted at earlier. Lindsay, do you want to talk about a couple of them?

Lindsay Bjerregaard:

Sure. So, two of the special events we're doing for the first time this year are taking place in the Go Live! Theater. So on Tuesday, there's going to be a Wing Woman meet and greet. That is an event where women in the industry can connect and network with each other. That's going to be sponsored by AWING. And then on Wednesday there will be a Rising Stars meet and greet event in the Go Live! Theater. And that is meant for people in the industry under the age of 35 to come network. But not only are we encouraging young people to come to that, but also established professionals who are interested in doing mentoring. So, if any of those are of interest to you or if you have colleagues who might be good for both of those, we highly encourage you to pass the word on.

Lee Ann Shay:

Sounds good. And I'd also like to plug the Aerospace Maintenance Competition, which will be going on, of course, across the event as well as... Once again, we are having Dream Opportunity, they used to be called Diversity Org, on Wednesday. It's an organization that helps launch diverse talent into aviation careers, and into other industries, but for one they're focusing on aviation, obviously. We've got students from four local colleges who are be touring that day. They'll be on the floor from about 10:00 until 01:00, so be on the lookout for them as well.

James, are there any that you'd like to highlight?

James Pozzi:

Yeah, on the Wednesday I'll be moderating a pretty exciting one on the state of the engine market that'll have three global players on engine specialisms, StandardAero, US-based, then Lufthansa Technik and Air France, KLM Maintenance and Engineering. So three representatives from that. We'll be talking about, as I said, the state of the engine market, looking at maybe the durability issues of some of those new-gen engines, LEAP, GTF, and maybe even in the wide-body space, the Trent 1000 as well. And getting a picture there of how things potentially are improving, as I mentioned earlier, that things are improving a bit. Although, moderately so in relation to lead times, material availability and even tooling, which has been a pretty overlooked issue, particularly with the LEAP engine over the last few years. So that's going to be quite exciting now on the Wednesday.

And also capacity is another topic that's short to come up there, and how they're balancing that with the wave still that is to come for shop visits for the predecessor engines, particularly in the narrowbody space, the CFM56 and the V2500. A reasonable percentage of those still haven't undergone their first shot visit amazingly, and there's at least two decades left in some of those programs. They'll be around for a while in the fleet. So, they're not going anywhere either. And of course, the inflection point is expected around I think 2027, perhaps some say 2028. So yeah, we'll get their insights there and how they're managing that. So that's exciting. Another thing as well, which is very cool in the Go Live! Theater at noon on Tuesday, I'll be sitting down with John Holmes, who is the CEO and president of AAR. One of the largest MROs, not just in North America but in the world.

AAR recently reported some interesting Q3 results with some bright spots, but of course its share price has taken a bit of a hit lately, it's fair to say. I don't want to give too much away about my conversation with John, but we'll be looking at a range of topics from the geopolitical side. He's quite keen to talk about that. There's potential, there's a looming threats, if you can call it that, of U.S. government tariffs and anything that comes out of the so-called Liberation Day (April 2). So we'll have a bit more of an insight there on tariffs because everyone's playing a guessing game at the moment, especially in Europe where I'm based in the UK. If these were to come in, these could impact MROs in all sorts of areas. Moving parts, for example, across borders, that's one that immediately comes to mind, but there will be other areas.

So, we'll get John's take on that. And in addition to the tariffs discussion, there's also the recent activity of AAR which to me have always been one of the more interesting companies in terms of portfolio and areas they service in the industry. Their recent large acquisition of Triumph, their biggest to date. And also their acquisition of software company Trax, and the offloading, of course, of their landing gear business to GA Telesis earlier this year. They'll also be on the agenda.

John, as we know, is always a very candid engaging speaker, so I'm sure he'll have some very interesting things to say on Tuesday. Just to point out as well, the day before MRO Americas begins on the Monday, I'm moderating a leaders panel at the Systems Integration Summit that's with leaders from Delta Airlines, Collins Aerospace, FEAM and Aspire MRO. This will look at managing technology integration projects and how these leaders are overseeing them and how they're guiding their teams through such a big organizational shift, a lot of time and a lot of investment in these projects. So that's sure to be interesting as well. And of course, digitalization, particularly in the North America region, is always a hot topic and there's a lot of innovation going on there. So, that'll be well worth watching. I'm sure we'll be reporting on that shortly after Monday.

Lee Ann Shay:

James, thank you for those comments. It sounds like there's going to be a lot of really good things coming up. So, I think it's important for people who have maybe not been to MRO Americas before or even if you're a veteran, we do have some tips for how to make the event successful. Lindsay, how about for you?

Lindsay Bjerregaard:

Well, I would say, look carefully at the schedule ahead of time. There are a lot of things happening simultaneously, right? For most of the conference, two sessions happening simultaneously. There's also Go Live! sessions happening all day long. And then as you'd mentioned, Lee Ann, there are different events happening on the show floor. The Aerospace Maintenance Competition will be the first two days of the show, and then the award session for that will be on Thursday. And that's cool if you've never seen that. There's a lot of excitement there. But also the other thing, just wear comfortable shoes because you'll be doing a lot of walking. I think those would be my main tips.

Lee Ann Shay:

I agree with the comfortable shoes, absolutely. And that's a perfect segue, Inside MRO’s April issue, which will be distributing throughout the event and is the official publication of MRO Americas, includes a map that could be very helpful for you to navigate the floor. And if you haven't downloaded the MRO Americas app, it's super helpful. A quick way to find exhibitors. And if you need to walk from point A to point B, you can put those points in and there's a little dotted line that shows you how to get from point A to point B. So that can be a handy thing as well.

And I'd also really like to plug, this is not tips, but Tuesday, April 8th when the MRO Americas conference starts, we will be having the Annual Awards Aviation Week's, MRO Lifetime Achievement Award, and A4A's Nuts and Bolts. So I'd encourage everybody to go to those as well. And John Laughter will be speaking Tuesday morning as well from Delta Air Lines, Delta TechOps. So I think that'll be a session you don't want to miss as well.

Lindsay and James, thank you for your MRO Americas’ Insights. That's a wrap for this MRO podcast. Don't miss the next episode by subscribing to the MRO podcast. And one last request, please consider leaving us a star rating or writing a review. Thanks so much. Hope to see you in Atlanta.