On the eve of Aviation Week’s MRO Europe—running Oct. 14-16 in London—editors preview expected highlights of the exhibition, conference and GoLive! Theater.
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AI-Generated Transcript
Lee Ann Shay: Welcome to the MRO Podcast. In this episode, we’re going to preview Aviation Week’s upcoming MRO Europe, which takes place at the ExCeL London, October 14-16. The leading European MRO event draws more than 11,500 attendees to the 590-plus exhibitors conference go live theater on the exhibit floor. So much going on. I’m Lee Ann Shay, Aviation Week’s executive editor for MRO and Business Aviation, and I’m joined by colleagues James Pozzi, MRO editor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. And Lindsay Ard, who is our managing editor for MRO. James, Lindsay, welcome. Thanks, Lee Ann.
James Pozzi: Hi, Lee Ann.
Lee Ann Shay: Because there are so many opportunities at MRO Europe, let’s break it down a bit. First, let’s talk about the conference taking place October 14-15. James, you’re moderating a few sessions. Will you tell us about them?
James Pozzi: Yes, Lee Ann. I think we should start with the keynote speaker who is speaking at 12 p.m. on day one of MRO Europe, and that is Andy Best of course, chief technical officer at British Airways. Of course, the hometown airline guest for MRO Europe being in London. British Airways is the flag carrier the largest, well, definitely the most well-known airline in the U.K. and one of the biggest in Europe, certainly by fleet size and just a very recognizable carrier and brand. So yeah, of course Andy is no stranger to this. He did the keynote at MRO Europe back in 2022 when he was quite new to the role at BA, having joined earlier that year. The BA side, although he was of course in the IAG group, the parent company of British Airways, which includes of course, Vueling, Iberia, Aer Lingus to name, but a few as well as British Airways of course.
And he came over from the maintenance division on the maintenance business from Iberia to head up the British Airways. So Andy, of course features in the latest edition of Inside MRO magazine and the Airline Insights series, and he’s got some very candid things to say, and I think some of these things will carry over, of course into MRO Europe on day one. So at the core of this is British Airways has been undergoing a transformation program for several years now. It’s a lot of investment across the airline and of course into the maintenance and engineering side of the business. It focuses on many or several key areas pertaining to maintenance. The key ones that I’m particularly interested in are the operational efficiencies and its maintenance processes driving down TATs, for example, technological advancements, which I guess ties into that operational efficiency side as well. He’s got plenty of things to say I’m sure about things like AI and predictive maintenance and of course the workforce side and how they’re, I guess, growing the skills of their workforce and attracting new talent and upskilling existing talent in the company.
Of course, the airline, while they don’t do third-party work, a lot of their work is, or most of their work is just the in-house fleet work sometimes as a result, I think their maintenance division is a bit understated or overlooked in terms of its size. There’s over 4,500 employees in its engineering and technical teams all across the U.K. and the world because they’ve got 70-plus line stations in the U.K. and overseas. But of course their main base is of course Heathrow is their headquarters and they do some checks there. But their main maintenance is certainly at Gatwick airport just south of London, Cardiff Airport in Wales, and Glasgow Airport in Scotland too. So we’ll also be looking a lot at the transformation side. Another thing worth looking at, and it’s so pertinent to Europe right now, is capacity that has been a real bottleneck in the continent and just the lack of capacity unable to meet those seasonal demands or the heightened peaks.
I think it’s fair to say BA has been addressing that and obviously added further capacity at Gatwick by acquiring the Boeing Global Services facility last year, which will work on its 777 fleets and obviously its Eurofly subsidiary fleets that are based at London Gatwick Airport too. So there’s a whole conversation to be had there about the capacity side of things. And also Andy of course is someone I’ve known for several years now. He’s always very candid and honest about the state of the industry and what he sees around him. So it’ll be very interesting to hear what he has to say as well about the current situation with the supply chain and the airline’s relationship with OEMs. BA has experienced delivery delays on new aircraft types that’s been very well documented. It’ll be interesting what he has to say about I guess what is needed from that side of the market to fix its current state and how it is working with the airline as a partner, I guess, and an enabler and a driver with the OEMs and how that relationship may have changed and what the expectation from Andy as the airline side.
So sure to be a really interesting conversation and we’ll do our best to fit as much in as we can over the 30 minutes or so. We’ve got doing the keynote and the Q&A.
Lee Ann Shay: Thanks James. I’d also like to highlight on the conference side so many things. Dan Williams will be revealing Aviation Week’s new 2026 forecast. The opening session will cover a lot of market dynamics that are going on. There’s also an airline panel, which is right after James interviews Andy Best, so stay tuned for that. Switching gears, Lindsay, there are a lot of workforce initiatives. Would you please tell us about them?
Lindsay Bjerregaard: Sure, absolutely. And really quickly before I get into that, you shouted out Dan’s data session. I know James talked about Andy’s interview in Inside MRO, the October issue of Inside MRO also has a really robust preview of our new forecast number, so be sure to pick up a copy of that. But then as far as workforce goes, there’s all kinds of stuff happening on the main stage in the Go Live theater on the show floor. So it sort of kicks off on Wednesday at 11 a.m. in the Go Live theater. I’m going to be interviewing GetJet Airlines CEO, Inga Douglas, who is a woman. And IATA data shows that only around 6% of airlines have a female CEO. So I’m going to be talking to her about how she got where she is today, lessons she’s learned along the way and advice that she has for other young professionals.
And then immediately after that session, we are doing again, our Wing Woman program in the Go Live theater. So we did this year at MRO Americas as well, but it is essentially a program that pairs women who are new to the MRO industry with experienced professionals for mentorship opportunities. So participants in that program are going to be getting guided show floor tours, but the Wing Woman event in the Go Live Theater is sort of a networking event, meet and greet where anybody who’s interested in talking to them and helping with networking is certainly welcome to show up. Thinking of programs that we’re doing again that we also did at MRO Americas the following day on Thursday, we have the Rising Stars program at 11:30 a.m. and that is a networking event for next generation workforce. So we’ll have both young professionals coming, but then we also welcome more experienced people to come network with them, share your advice and that sort of stuff.
And prior to that event, we’re going to be having a session in the Go Live theater where leaders from companies like MTU Maintenance, Aeroman and Vueling are going to be talking about approaches to cultivating and retaining leadership talent, which is becoming increasingly important. So I think that will be one that we shouldn’t miss. But then also on Thursday morning, we are going to be bringing some local secondary school and college students to the show so that they can learn more about the MRO industry and the types of careers they can pursue in it. So we’ll have some people coming to talk to them, myself included, and they’ll be visiting some companies on the show floor and then they’ll also be attending the Rising Stars meet and greet. So if you want to shape some young hearts and minds, be sure to stop by that and then talk to them.
And then lastly, on Thursday, I will also be hosting a session on the main stage at 12:15 p.m., which will focus on training and workforce strategies to address things like the seniority issue. So we will have panelists from Ryanair, Magnetic MRO Group, Cranfield University, and Skyforce Talent Solutions, and we’re going to be talking about all kinds of things, training, recruiting and retention strategies, technology and all of that. So please come to the panel. It’s the last one of the day, and a lot of times we have attendance dropping off at the end of the day, but I think this one will be worth your while. So that’s my plea to our listeners.
Lee Ann Shay: Oh, absolutely. That’s a lot of really good stuff, and workforce has been such a big issue. So there’s just so many different things going on. So I’d encourage our listeners, MRO Europe attendees, find something that works in your schedule and do it. And a student tour that Lindsay mentioned, she said that we’ve been doing it at MRO Americas, but this is a first that we’ve done at MRO Europe. It’s been a really successful program at MRO Americas. So we really want to extend that and get more kids involved just so they can see the opportunities that are in the MRO industry, because a lot of them don’t know this industry even exists. Right. Switching gears, Lindsay mentioned a couple of things on the Go Live theater, which is on the exhibit floor. It’s free to anybody who is attending the Wing Women on Wednesday, the Rising Stars on October 16, but there’s a lot of other things going on, James and Lindsay, are there any other sessions either in the conference or the Go Live that you would like to highlight to our listeners?
James Pozzi: Well, first I’ll just follow Lindsay’s lead actually. And there’s a couple of other panel sessions I wanted to mention just for, there’s my engine focus panel on day one that has Pratt & Whitney on it, of course, an OEM, but also some real big hitters from Europe and beyond, I guess Lufthansa Technik, for example, from Germany, Iberia Maintenance in Spain, Delta TechOps of course in the U.S. and ITP Aero in Spain. And we’re going to have a lot of interesting discussions there, of course, about our guest capacity, TATs, supply chain lags and network expansions within the context as well, I guess, of the GTF, because what binds those MROs all together is they are all part of the GTF network. Some more established than others, of course, because ITP Aero only joined this summer for the PW1500 and the PW1900 that they’re industrializing for that.
So yes, that ought to be a very interesting discussion on, I guess the GTF and its support network, but we can look at wider issues too in the engine industry. So yes, that’s something I’d like to promote. And of course on day two, I’m sitting down with William Ampofo, who is SVP for Boeing Global Services parts and distribution and supply chain at Boeing. And Richard Stoddard, who is the CEO of Satair and head of material services at Airbus. So the two giant aircraft OEMs are sitting down to talk about, I guess supply chain part shortages will come up, but there’s a lot more. And those planning calls have taken place, and I’m very excited about those two.
Lindsay Bjerregaard: Yeah, in addition to what James had said, I think there’s going to be a lot of interesting panels related to technology. So that’s both on the Go Live theater and the main stage. There’s an artificial intelligence panel on the main stage, but then we have some interesting sessions on the Go Live about things like predictive maintenance and artificial intelligence. It seems like there’s a lot of sustainability-related sessions throughout the show, which I think are going to be really cool. And then there’s just a lot related to fleet dynamics, used serviceable material and that sort of thing. So I think there’s going to be a lot of interesting themes emerging from that. And then lastly, I did want to shout out at the end of Wednesday, all of the editors and Dan Williams from our data team are going to be recording a live podcast in the Go Live Theater at 3:30 p.m. So we’ll just be chatting about our biggest takeaways at the show so far. And if you’ve never seen Sean Broderick and Dan Williams interacting in person on stage, I highly recommend. It’s usually pretty entertaining.
Lee Ann Shay: I would encourage everybody to do that. And I think Dan has some interesting things to say, and I think he might, instead of the bell, if anybody’s been listening to the supply chain bell, I think there is a replacement for the supply chain bell. So stay tuned for that. And another thing on the Go Live theater that I wanted to plug, Airlink, which provides humanitarian aid by leveraging aviation, is going to have just a 15-minute session on Wednesday from 1:45 till 2 o’clock. So if you’ve heard about Airlink and ever wondered how you can help them or what they do, I’d encourage you to go check that one out as well. So Lindsay and James, thank you so much for your insights. Really appreciate it. That’s a wrap for this MRO podcast. Don’t miss the next episode by subscribing to the MRO podcast wherever you listen to them. And one last request. If you’re listening in Apple Podcasts, please consider leaving us a star rating or writing a review. Thank you so much and have a fantastic day.
