Aircraft feedstock is increasing by the minute and you’re going to see seismic levels of airplanes being delivered out of the legacy carriers now that the B737-800NGs and 900NGs are being delivered at record levels, so that’s helping a lot,” said Brian McCarthy VP, marketing and sales at Precision.
Currently Precision is finishing up a combi and starting up another conversion on 20 May, “so not nearly as many airplanes as I would like to see – we should have three airplanes up right now, but we don’t and that’s just a sign of the times,” he concedes.
“But we are getting far more inquiries now than we’ve ever gotten. Feedstock is now getting abundant and affordable feedstock has everything to do with the level of interest we get.” Currently there are over 100 aircraft on the market now – coming out of US legacy carriers like United and others. Precision also received certification for 757-200PCF conversions on winglet equipped aircraft, which McCarthy says “will open a few doors for us because only the newest, youngest aircraft have winglets, that’s just the way it went.”
“We’ve got 300 plus aircraft that are candidates as we look forward, all that are well within age restrictions and age brackets that we’re looking for – low cycle airplanes that are 1992-2004 type of airplanes and so we’ve got a good feedstock base,” he says. “We can easily count a potential 50 or 60 airplane orders without even trying – from the various customers, including replacements and additions and we’re getting inquiries from new customers, so I would say I’m encouraged, but its been a tough few years.
“Our biggest concern is we’ve got a ton of feedstock and it looks like its going to meet demand, but the big issue is it will then turn and flip over to not enough slots,” he said adding that Precision has been stocking up on conversion kits to ready itself for such a situation, “but we think we can meet and respond with enough MRO capacity and kits until we can get back up to speed and produce what is probably going to be 10 or 11 airplanes a year.” Aside from its relationship with TAECO, Precision also has its main facility – Flightstar Aircraft Services – located in Jacksonville, Florida and only last month a new agreement with Goodyear, Arizona based AeroTurbine Inc, MRO Facility for conversion and MRO work.
While it may still be a bit premature to break open the champagne, the difference says McCarthy “is now we’ve got people making inquiries and actually out purchasing aircraft.” He notes the customer base is expanding as well with a new breed of cargo operator that is emerging out of logistics providers, “the guys who have ground components but are taking to the air,” like China’s rising star, Shenzhen-based SF Express. Precision won a contract last year from SF Express for half a dozen passengerto- freighter conversions of 757-200s to 15-pallet PCF configuration, with all of the modification work to be done at TAECO’s Xiamen facility.
