A multi-engine, instrument rated pilot, James Wynbrandt has been an AIN and Business Jet Traveler contributor since 2003. His in-depth reporting and insightful features have won more than a dozen editorial honors, including two National Business Aviation Association Gold Wing Awards (2019; 2021), and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Barron’s, Fortune, Forbes, and Smithsonian Air &amp; Space. He has flown his Mooney M20K 252 on assignments throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Wynbrandt is also the author of Flying High (Wiley &amp; Sons), a biography of Jet Blue founder David Neeleman, as well as histories, references works, and books on a variety of other topics from major publishers. He lives in New York City.

Contributor - Business Aviation

James Wynbrandt

With demand for commercial aircraft storage space in the region expected to rise, Australian MRO Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage (APAS; Chalet B67) is showcasing at the Singapore Airshow its storage and part-out facility, along with a new, in-house-developed maintenance tracking platform.

 


APAS operates what it calls the first dedicated aircraft storage and part-out facility in the&nbsp;region.&nbsp;The nearly year-long grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max has impacted demand for commercial storage, noted APAS general manager Tom Vincent. Some regional operators and lessors have kept older equipment flying in place of lift the new Boeings were expected to provide, and its anticipated return to service this year will likely lead them to then park older, newly-idled airframes.

 


For such owners, the region offers a generally poor climate for aircraft storage, Vincent noted, with its high humidity and threats of cyclones and typhoons&nbsp;creating risks for corrosion and worse. In contrast, APAS is located in a low-humidity desert environment, and accessible by even narrowbody aircraft in a single-leg&nbsp;direct-sector repositioning flight from locations including Singapore (five&nbsp;hours), Indonesia (three&nbsp;hours) and China (seven&nbsp;hours). While the brush fires in Australia’s wooded coastal regions have drawn world attention, APAS is located in Alice Springs, Northern Territory.&nbsp;“We don’t have the trees and foliage,” Vincent said.

 


APAS plans to expand its storage area this year to accommodate a total of about 70 airliners and large commuter aircraft.

 


On the MRO side of the house, APAS holds Part 145 maintenance approvals under EASA, FAA, CASA, CAAS, 2-REG and other national aviation authorities for work on Airbus A320 and A330, and Boeing 737, 767 and, 777 aircraft.

 


APAS recently developed in-house a cloud-based maintenance tracking tool. The service-platform software is “designed from an aircraft maintenance perspective,” Vincent said and simplifies and automates MRO project management from order placement through invoicing. It tracks work, parts, support equipment and tools, certifications, and all other aspects of the work package. On the customer side, the maintenance tracker provides real-time access to work records, work-in-progress status, and reporting tools, and is accessible via iOS and Android devices.

 


The company&nbsp;has seen interest in the platform, developed for its own use,&nbsp;from small- and medium-size&nbsp;MROs, and is now offering the platform under license to other Part 145 facilities. APAS is demonstrating the tool at the show. “[MROs]&nbsp;can brand it with their own logos, and offer it to their own customers,” Vincent said.

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