Aviation encounters new challenges every year due to its growing demand. Whether it is commercial flights for regular travel or cargo services, aviation needs to continually expand and overcome its limits to meet the ever-increasing demand. 2019 wasn’t any different, and increasing aviation demand also meant a more significant need for aircraft spare parts. 

As you probably know, aircraft performs best when it is in permanent use. If it stays on the ground, then it is not healthy for the plane, and the owner wastes money. However, despite the advantages of continually flying aircraft, the safety regulations must be followed, routine checks and maintenance procedures have to be performed timely. Therefore, it is crucial to get the spare parts quickly and effectively. Locatory.com is there to provide accurate and the best in the market service times. 

Most popular Total Air Sensors (TAT) and air data parts

Locatory.com started to release a list of most popular aircraft spare parts every year. In 2018 the most popular were wheels and brakes. However, in 2019 the top place went to Total Air Sensors (TAT) and other air data spare parts. 

When flying the aircraft, pilots must know the accurate outside temperature to avoid errors and ensure smooth aircraft handling. TAT sensors are positioned in the airflow of an aircraft which in result means that the kinect heating raises the temperature above outside air temperature. This temperature is crucial in determining True Air Speed (TAS). We are glad to announce that a total of 100% customers who looked for this part was able to find it on Locatory.com. 

The other spare part among the 15 most popular was Air Data Computer (ADC) which is essential in determining the aircraft altitude, calibrated speed and much more. It is also used to calculate TAS as the information from TAT is transferred to ADC and it finishes the calculations. 

The importance of timely information in the sky

The other trendy spare parts were receiver and transceiver. These two parts are essential in assuring the sufficient flow of communication. Receivers and transmitters are the electronic devices that manipulate electricity resulting in the transmission of useful information through the atmosphere or space.

Also, the magnetometers became one of the most wanted spare parts in 2019. Magnetometers are the crucial part used for navigation. A simplified version of it was used in early aviation days and remained the vital part due to its helpfulness. In the early days of magnetometers, it was used as an instrument to show heading information and took up quite a lot of space. 

These days magnetometer measures Earth’s magnetic field and shows orientation. Therefore pilots can know where they are and where is their destination point. 

The future trends and spare part demand

Comparing the results of 2018 and 2019, we can perceive that it is hard to predict what will be the most sought spare parts. However, the prediction here is not as crucial as the speed of adapting to change and fulfilling the dynamic demand. Locatory.com is determined to provide speedy and cost-effective services. Our parts reach the client in the shortest possible time and help save the precious time of a grounded aircraft. 

Dainius Meilunas, the CEO at Locatory.com, states that “we are constantly improving our services and implementing modern IT systems to fulfil the ever-growing customer needs”. Locatory.com is famous among airlines and MRO companies for their fast handling manner and vast experience in the aviation field. Additionally, by being part of worldwide aviation group, Locatory.com can advance their solutions faster and get ahead of the competition easier. 

You can find the full list of TOP 15 spare parts below.

TOP 15 aircraft spare parts and part numbers (PN) of 2019:

SENSOR, TOTAL TEMPERATURE 0102AW1AF-1

MAGNETOMETER 011-00870-00/002A0006-69

AIR DATA COMPUTER 011-00882-10

SENSOR, TOTAL TEMPERATURE 0102AY1AF

RECEIVER ASSY BLACK 011-01060-00

TRANSCEIVER VHF COMM 064-50000-2052

Battery 024147-000

SENSOR COMPRESSOR IN 0154EW4-1

PROBE-TOTAL PRESSURE AND TEMP 0154ED2

SENSOR 0154JU

RELAY BOX 005RL05

SWITCH 024804-002

AUTO PILOT COMPUTER 065-0042-03

MODULE DISPLAY 043351-4

TAG Aviation Maintenance Services has selected Sensus MRO as its future operating system to complement Quantum, its legacy system. Sensus MRO is a web-based and field-proven Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution for the MRO industry. It is developed and supported by Locatory.com a Lithuania based subsidiary of Avia Solutions Group.

Sensus MRO will enhance TAG Aviation Maintenance Services’ customer experience by offering new functionalities such as improved capacity planning, customer portal, remote access for increased mobility, optimised quoting/invoicing processes and time tracking. In addition, Sensus MRO will provide a unique opportunity to harmonise TAG’s Information systems and processes across its unique pan-European network of line and base stations.

TAG Aviation’s maintenance operation services chose Sensus for its capabilities and innovative approach. The Enterprise Resource Planning system easily integrates with other software and databases, is module-based, highly customizable (modules can run as a standalone or altogether) and it can be adapted by Sensus developers according to a customer’s needs.

“Having one of the most advanced business jet MRO companies in the world select our IT solution demonstrates that we have created an exclusive product that is useful on a global level”, said Dainius Meilunas, CEO of Locatory.com. “With TAG Aviation headquarters based in Switzerland, it shows that our solution meets the highest standards of quality and proves that our product is one of the most advanced currently available in the aviation market.”

“By improving TAG Aviation’s customer experience through enhancing features to make our organisation more agile, Sensus MRO appeared to be the most appropriate system to support our future growth and enable our Maintenance operations to become even more customer centric”, added Franck Madignier, TAG Aviation, President Maintenance and FBO, TAG Aviation Europe.

Searching and ordering of spare parts is a common and daily operation for most MROs and airlines. There is one key element in this procedure that everyone looks over until the time comes – the shipping of goods. This service is rarely a big problem for the biggest companies that do massive orders through their partners.

However, shipping can become quite a headache for smaller market players, especially money and resources wise. When the time is of the essence and the funds are limited, finding a good and cheaper logistics partner becomes a challenge. Such problems can be solved by specific solutions, developed by other market players.

A vast network of partners saves time and money

An aviation IT company Locatory.com, primarily acting as an aircraft parts locator, is constantly expanding its service portfolio. A year ago, the company introduced its Shipping service, which has already received an extremely good evaluation from the clients. “When we first started using Locatory shipping, employees were very helpful and walked us through all the steps. Everything was great since we started using the service to ship everything to and from overseas! You seriously can’t beat Locatory’s prices!” said Heather King, Executive Administrative Assistant at Five Star Aviation.

Locatory.com worked many years to gather a vast network of partners around the world for shipping services, thus creating a global network for goods transfer. This gives the company a possibility to provide very specific and lower prices for every single client. For example, a standard price for Express shipping of 10 kg package, 40x35x35cm, from one of the logistics company on route Miami, US to Kwai Chung, Hong Kong, would cost 345,27 USD. Locatory.com, using its extensive relationship with its partners, would be able to provide the same service with the same logistics company for 143,8 USD. This exemplary price would be offered to every client, even the smallest ones.

“There is no doubt, that if some Lithuanian company would need to order parts here in Lithuania, they would contact local logistics company since there is no time gap, the knowledge of the market is better. However, for an American company it would be much more difficult to find reliable logistics partners in Lithuania. And this is where we come in. Our extensive knowledge and know-how allowed us to combine a great network of shipping partners. Our partners are located all around the world from Australia to the US, India to Brazil, Lithuania to South Africa. I believe that this service contributes to the highest user experience for all our clients, which grants a better end result satisfaction for everyone. We specifically developed this service to suit the needs even of the smallest clients, so they would save their time and money,” says Dainius Meilunas, CEO at Locatory.com.

Shipping service oriented in safety and quality

Locatory.com works every day to make its service more approachable and of best quality to their clients, including to when it comes to ordering of spare parts. Besides the price of the service itself, the company’s representatives are always ready to provide with any needed information on the package. Parcel tracking is one of the important features of the service. Rather many logistics companies do not give the information on the whereabouts of the goods, however, Locatory’s managers always require their partners to provide with the positioning of goods, including when they are ordering of spare parts. “We noticed that not all logistics companies provide their clients with this capability, so we are constantly working with our partners on cargo status, allowing us to present constant update sto our clients. Even in an unexpected situations, our managers are extremely experienced and know how to handle difficult situations,” says Asta Svilainyte, Key Account Logistics Manager at Locatory.com

The company serves its clients not just with regular goods. It can also provide with the partners that would help to ship heavy cargos, containers, and dangerous goods across the world. The service is very extensive, giving the opportunity on not just ordering the shipping service but also in preparing the documentation, declarations, custom clearance, labeling and packing. Besides that, having partners all over the world who knows all major languages, the company’s representatives can communicate with the senders in their native tongue, which allows Locatory.com to become a bridge between countries and continents.

Locatory.com, an aviation IT company, primarily acting as an aircraft parts locator, a part of Avia Solutions Group, has announced about their investment in a new business. The company is spreading its services portfolio and has started the leasing of aircraft engine stands globally. It is planned that in five upcoming years Locatory.com will invest over 10 million USD.

„Our company just started the business after realizing that there is a gap in the market. We understand that owning engine stands might be a luxury for many MROs and airlines, thus we decided to implement this project and invest over 10 million to its growth and the variety of stands. We start with the most popular ones and the most important part of it – we partnered with one of the leading certified engine stand manufacturers to ensure the highest quality of our product. Besides that, we will make the process smart by adding extra convenience and efficiency to the regular market standards,” says Dainius Meilunas, CEO at Locatory.com.

The company partnered with AGSE for their stand manufacturing. They will start its service by providing two options – stands for CFM56A/B and CFM56-7 engines. Locatory.com will offer a high-quality equipment lease for a preferred period so that the clients all around the world could productively carry out maintenance operations. In addition, the company will offer worldwide shipping services for all leasing orders.

The first operations already started in Europe and will advance soon enough as the first orders are being planned for Asia in 2019.

There is no doubt that the aviation industry has a great impact on the environment. Various Non-governmental organizations (NGO) worldwide are searching for the best ways to solve the issue of rapidly growing carbon dioxide emissions as the number of air passengers exceeds every forecast.

And not just NGOs, as aircraft manufacturers are carefully designing new engines and other solutions to reduce carbon emissions. However, the movement towards eco-friendly aviation is barely scratching the surface of the issue despite the effort. So, what is happening in the industry towards the green flying initiative and what can actually be done on limited resources?

The biggest issues

Probably the biggest issue for green flying is the actual flying. People are constantly traveling by plane and it would be extremely difficult to persuade them that any other mean of transportation would be much more environmentally friendly. Mostly, because at this age time is money, and flying saves time. Besides that, travels by aircraft became a lot cheaper, especially with low-cost airlines when tickets for a vacation can cost as low as 10 euro per person. However, what is the real cost of so many flights?

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), at the moment around 4 billion passenger seats are sold in civilian airliners every year. Meaning that nearly half of our population flies every year. It is predicted that by 2036 the number will double. Every year the number of air passengers grows by 5 percent. The irony – everyone worldwide is talking about carbon emissions and searches for the ways to minimize it but flies more than any year before.

Of course, one might say that aviation is just a very small player in carbon emission environment and it would not be wrong. Only 2 percent of global carbon emissions belong to the aviation industry, however, these 2 percent convert to 859 million tons, which still is a great issue in the worldwide context.

What are the solutions?  

Some of the solutions to this ongoing and still rising issue are obvious. We should stop flying so frequently. But is it really a solution? Aircraft manufacturers are working daily to create engines that would use less aviation fuel and would be more efficient. However, knowing the aircraft fleet worldwide is not changing as soon as the new aircraft engines being released, these changes would not be implemented soon enough.

The other solution is to adapt current aircraft for biofuel. Some airlines are already flying with biofuel. In the past decade, aircraft are allowed to run with synthetic kerosene. ASTM International, the organization that sets standards on jet fuel, allowed having up to 50 percent of biofuel in jet tanks and by this day we already had around 143 thousand such flights. Yet again, this is an extremely small amount of scheduled flights as only in 2018 there were 39 million of them. There is also another issue being raised – if biofuel will be used, will there be an issue for food growing and using it for fuel rather than feeding people worldwide.

The most interesting suggestion is to use electricity instead of fuel. This solution is yet to be developed and is not used commonly at the moment. Only several test flight were done and most of them were on extremely small aircraft. Of course, using renewables is very appealing but the result at the moment is not satisfactory at all.

What else can be done?

It is really hard to say, what could be the universal truth for this rising issue. The development of new technologies will eventually serve to the purpose but at this time, it is best to adapt the older fleet to timely standards. The best way to do so is by upgrading the aircraft with spare parts that would help to minimize the consumption of jet fuel even in theoretical level. The reason behind this is that the fleet is not changing fast enough to be up to date with environmental standards and maybe even the smallest adaptations of the aircraft or its engines while working hand-in-hand with manufacturers and standardization organizations would benefit to the cause.

 “We understand that the aviation industry is changing very slowly. It is enormous and even the slightest changes to the aircraft mean a lot of finance. However, we must be flexible and responsible. There are many various regulations and new standards being developed every day. Even the smallest changes in the aircraft, physical or IT solutions, might change the efficiency of the aircraft and every player in the market should be willing to make their fleet as green as possible,” says Dainius Meilunas, CEO at Locatory.com, an aviation IT company, primarily acting as an aircraft parts locator.