In Copenhagen on 13 September, IATA asked engine makers to treat used serviceable material as a market, not a privilege. The prompt was a quieter European issue. In August the Commission closed an antitrust look at Pratt & Whitney Canada after the company loosened contract clauses that had made it hard for independent shops to buy used turboprop cores and get them certified. ATR and Dash-8 operators, said Nick Careen of IATA, will feel that first. 'Now is the opportunity for this to extend into the main jet engine markets because that is where the gold is'. The association puts last year’s parts-and-shop shortage at almost $6bn. Executives at the same gathering did not expect the queue to shorten soon.
Follow one life-limited part. A high-pressure turbine blade leaves a retired engine in a teardown shop. Its identity, serial, cycles, last shop visit must survive the crate. An approved repair restores it to a drawing. A regulator or a designated engineering organisation says the work is airworthy. Only then may it go back on wing. Manufacturers argue that this chain, kept inside their network, protects the type certificate and the next failure. Airlines argue that when the OEM also rations cores, manuals and stamps, a shortage is not only metallurgy. It is intellectual property with a delivery date.
The jet engines that matter are LEAP, GTF, GEnx and Trent. The ones that decide whether an A320neo or a 787 earns or sits idle. CFM has an IATA aftermarket understanding that other shops say is more open. GTF shop visits remain the industry’s longest wait. Used material that is legal, traced and cheaper than a new blade is how an airline keeps a hull off the desert. Used material that is blocked by a clause is how an OEM keeps the aftermarket.
The Commission did not order Pratt to flood the world with second-hand turboprop parts. It accepted amended contracts. IATA wants that logic on the big fans. Safety is not the slogan either side lacks. The fight is who may prove a used part is safe and how long an aeroplane stays AOG while they argue.