Aspiring to new heights
Six Boeing B777 conversion lines in Fort Worth. The market isn’t providing as much new maindeck capacity as is needed in the medium term, which is attracting more maintenance companies to convert passenger aircraft into full-freighters (P2F units). A new US service provider has thrown its hat into the ring.
Almost ten years ago, in December 2012, American Airlines closed its maintenance base at Fort Worth Alliance airport (AFW), as part of the Chapter 11 reorganisation going on at the time of its parent company, the AMR Corporation. The move cost more than 1,100 jobs.
Now, new life is being breathed into the facility at the heart of the gateway, which already is, thanks mainly to FedEx Express and Amazon Air, the second busiest in northern Texas, after the Dallas / Fort Worth (DFW) hub.
In August, Aspire MRO announced the start of maintenance and conversion services for wide-body Boeing B777 aircraft. The 78,000 m2 facility has space for six workstations with modern equipment.
The company was founded and is managed by experienced executives and is backed by an investment fund supported by affiliates of the Fortress Investment Group. It will also explicitly rely on the expertise of the local workforce.
In any case, president and chief executive officer Phil Bathurst firmly expects “Aspire to become the preeminent MRO providing conversion and maintenance services for widebody aircraft in all of North America”.
A beginning has been made
Big words, but they’ve also been accompanied by concrete action. For Aspire has already signed an extensive multi-year contract to carry out P2F conversions and MRO-related work with an equally motivated new entrant to the segment – Mammoth Freighters.
The latter, based in Orlando FL, is incidentally also backed by the Fortress Investment Group (see also page 14 of ITJ 47-48 / 2021). So if the new facility does indeed become a long-term centre for intense aviation activity, time may in fact be turned back a few years – if a significant number of jobs are created in the Fort Worth area.