EasyJet signs long term maintenance contract with AJW
The new multi-year contract will support the airline’s growing fleet of Airbus aircraft. The award of the contract to AJW was the result of a thorough and comprehensive tender process.
AJW will be responsible for:
1) Component repair and overhaul;
2) Supply of consumable parts such as filters and lubricants; and
3) Management of the airline’s spares inventory including the storage and distribution of easyJet’s own extensive component inventory throughout its European network of 30 line stations.
The contract, which will start in October 2015, will cover easyJet’s fleet of 241 aircraft1. During the course of the contract easyJet plans to take delivery of over 100 Airbus A320 family aircraft including 51 Airbus A320neos taking the fleet to 304 aircraft by 2020.
Warwick Brady, Chief Operations Officer for easyJet, explained the main deciding factors for selecting AJW: “This deal is the first stage of a programme to re-tender easyJet’s engineering and maintenance contracts worth over £200 million annually and is an important part of the drive to deliver sustainable cost savings under easyJet Lean.
“This new partnership with AJW will enable easyJet to realise significant savings compared to our current arrangements as well as support the airline’s aim of outsourcing its technical supply chain requirements.
“AJW are well known for their innovation and dynamism and the new partnership with them provides easyJet with a combination of value and cultural alignment which we believe will bring continuous improvement and high service levels.
“We considered a variety of service options from providers, looking at each part of the programme separately, versus the multi-specialist approach provided by AJW. Not only were they able to give us the best offer for the complete bundle of services but their business culture matches our own.”
Boris Wolstenholme, CEO of AJW Aviation, commented: “This contract cements AJW’s position as the leading independent provider of component support programmes worldwide. We now have a global fleet of more than 900 aircraft under contract which demonstrates the confidence that leading airlines like easyJet place on our capabilities and can-do approach. This is a ground-breaking achievement for AJW Group and I am justifiably very proud of our team.
“This deal demonstrates that inventory, consumables and expendables can be divested to a fully outsourced service like AJW, and benefits from the preferential OEM support combined with knowledgeable global repair management that we offer. easyJet needs certainty of operational costs to sustain and improve the efficiency of the airline and AJW has built fleet escalation into our proposal as well as scaling of infrastructure and technology.”
The AJW Group leads the world not only in the supply and repair of Airbus and Boeing spare parts, but also through the provision of specialised aviation-centric support services that are chosen by airlines around the world. AJW provides sales and service support from a network of local offices globally, conducting business with more than 1000 airlines in 115 countries.
AJW Technique, the Group’s global MRO headquarters in Montreal, is a key catalyst in the upcoming programme, it will undertake a large proportion of the component repair and overhaul of easyJet’s parts. AJW will also deploy its worldwide network of approved and benchmarked repair vendors and, most importantly, further increase the quality and speed of repairs for easyJet via its strategic partnerships with leading OEMs, such as Thales and Zodiac Aerospace Services, who are already set to play an integral part within this new service structure.
