Minimising the Cost of Aircraft Interior Maintenance

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Minimising the Cost of Aircraft Interior
Maintenance TAP Case Analysis
Ana Ricardo, Cabin Interiors Painting
Engineer Nuno Trigo Miranda, Avionics Engineer
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ScopeWhere is most money spent when it comes to
routine interior maintenance?
Cabin Furnishings
BFE/SFE

• Aircraft seats restoration and cleaning
  (leather vs. fabric)
• Interior restoration and cleaning.
  (stowage bins, partitions, carpet floor
  coverings)

In-flight Entertainment systems Galley
systems.
Cost driven areas
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ScopeWhere is most money spent when it comes to
routine interior maintenance?
Cabin Furnishings
BFE/SFE
In-flight Entertainment systems Galley
systems.

• Aircraft seats restoration and cleaning
  (leather vs. fabric)
• Interior restoration and cleaning.
  (stowage bins, partitions, carpet floor
  coverings)

Cost driven areas
Objective
This presentation identifies the driving options
of TAP seat cover selection for the A320 family,
and discusses, from TAP experience with Lie Flat
Seat program, improvements in terms of design,
reparability and durability to control seat
routine maintenance costs. In the end some
general considerations are given on how can
aircraft maintenance programs be refined to
ensure minimum cabin routine maintenance costs.
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Agenda
Minimising the cost of aircraft interior
maintenance through material selection
A320fam Seat Cover
Selection Case Analysis To what extent is it
possible to reduce aircraft interior maintenance
costs as a result of improvements in terms of
design, reparability and durability?

A310/A340 Lie Flat Seats in B/C Case
Analysis To what extent can aircraft maintenance
programs be optimized to ensure that routine
maintenance is accomplished at an optimal
frequency without increasing non-routine
maintenance?
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Minimising the cost of aircraft interior
maintenance through material selectionA320fam
Seat Cover Selection Case Analysis
Acquisition Cost
Analysis and Recommendations
Maintenance Cost
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Acquisition CostA320fam Seat Cover Selection
A320FAM Short haul fleet
Acquisition Cost (Leather 33,5/m2)

• Objectives/Constrains
• Passenger Comfort
• Product differentiation
• Cabin appearance
• Reduced maintenance costs

When this analysis was conducted TAP already had
9 A/Cs with fabric covered seats. Adding to the
retrofit cost, genuine leather initial cost was
higher than fabric
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Maintenance CostA320fam Seat Cover Selection
Maintenance Costs
Even though the maintenance costs over the last
five years are increasing, the option for leather
seats still remains competitive. TAP experience
confirms that air conditioning, temperature
fluctuations and impurities on-board accelerate
fatigue of the leather. Special attention needs
to be draw to cleaning procedures and
periodicity.
In 1998 TAP based its maintenance cost analysis
on Swissair and Lufthansa experiences which
indicated an average durability of 9 years for
genuine leather, 3 times superior to TAP fabric
experience. Also, with genuine leather seats
there were no removals for dry cleaning. All
cleanings were done in situ, thus reducing the
routine maintenance costs.
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Analysis and RecommendationsA320fam Seat Cover
Selection
Our Experience
Leather vs. Fabric
MPM
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2
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• For the short haul fleet, there is still a wide
  spread believe that genuine leather is more
  appealing and prestigious than fabric
• The genuine leather initial cost is higher than
  fabric but with no unscheduled removals, no dry
  cleaning procedures and higher durability, the
  leather becomes a better option

• Over the first 5 years, there was an increase in
  maintenance costs, however in general the leather
  does not show signs of degradation, and cabin
  appearance remains as expected
• The leather still evokes a positive emotional
  response from the customers

• The complete replacement of all the seat covers
  should be accomplished every 9 years, coinciding
  with a C check inspection
• Covers in good conditions may be re-used

TAP experience with the A320fam seats confirms
that one the most relevant routine interior
maintenance costs can be highly reduced through
proper material selection.
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TAP A320fam Cabin viewsA320fam Seat Cover
Selection
Economic Class
Business Class
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Agenda
Minimising the cost of aircraft interior
maintenance through material selection
A320fam Seat Cover
Selection Case Analysis To what extent is it
possible to reduce aircraft interior maintenance
costs as a result of improvements in terms of
design, reparability and durability? A310/A340
Lie Flat Seats in B/C Case Analysis To what
extent can aircraft maintenance programs be
optimized to ensure that routine maintenance is
accomplished at an optimal frequency without
increasing non-routine maintenance?
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To what extent is it possible to reduce aircraft
interior maintenance costs as a result of
improvements in terms of design, reparability and
durability?
A340/A310 Long haul fleet
Design

• Objectives/Constrains
• Passenger Comfort
• First movers, reinforcing image
• Strong Budget Constrains
• Best Quality/Cost ratio

?
ROUTINE COST REDUCTION
Reparability
Durability
TAP long haul Lie Flat Seat project was developed
in a period of economic recession and had
therefore strong budgetary constrains. These
constrains prevented TAP from including some
experience items that could have helped reducing
the maintenance costs. The timing for project
launch was also critical.
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Routine cost reduction through DESIGNA310/A340
Lie Flat Seats in B/C
Position of user interface parts
Environment surrounding the seat
Seat Control Panel is placed right were
passengers hold their glasses. Drinks are spilled
over the control board corroding the PCB and the
seat becomes unserviceable. A shop routine task
had to be implemented to isolate the board and
the switch.
There is a big gap between the shell and the
backrest which allows several objects to get in,
thus jamming the seat. TAP proposed a bigger
cushion foam, but even with this modification
there are objects that get in. TAP created a
routine maintenance task that checks operation
between each flight.
These were some of the items that should have
been included in TAP project from the scratch but
due to time and budget constrains only with the
seats in operation was possible to correct them.
Units need to be designed to work in the
environment that they are intended for!
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Routine cost reduction through REPARABILITYA310/A
340 Lie Flat Seats in B/C
Location of components under the seat
assemblyIFE and Seat system are subject to
damage from being kicked and blocked by passenger
luggage, and experience heat-related failures due
to the dust and dirt to which they are exposed.
Example of a cable installation
Operation and surroundingsThe original intent of
a seat box was underneath the seat, and the seat
box is not designed for that location, as we
confirm from the modifications we have been
accomplishing regarding the use of silicone for
dust and moisture isolation.
Reducing the qty of components required for both
IFE ISPSThe access and reparability of these
systems is seriously compromised with the
increase electronics under the seat.
In general terms there is a good potential for
routine maintenance cost reduction, by
facilitating the access to units. Some tasks
involve on-wing procedures, and others involve
scheduled removals of units for shop disassembly
and cleaning. For the most part, these programs
are recommended by the OEM, and are not optional.
These programs are expensive in that they consume
labour resources.
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Routine cost reduction through DURABILITYA310/A34
0 Lie Flat Seats in B/C
After 6months the Cabin Appearance is not
acceptable! Synthetic leather was not as durable
and resistant as genuine leather in A320fam.
Destructive Tests to the leather confirmed that
it was weaker than expected, which meant higher
maintenance costs. Moreover, the replacement of
the shell cover has to be done off board.
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Routine cost reduction through DURABILITYA310/A34
0 Lie Flat Seats in B/C
Proposed solution on-board shell cover replacement
Material selection comments
Considerations should have been made with regards
to the root structure, passenger profile,
environments such as dust conditions and
temperature and aircraft utilizations. These
factors result in fatigue of the leather, and the
ageing process is thereby accelerated, resulting
in the deterioration of cabin appearance, as seen
in the previous slide. In order to retain cabin
value and delay the leather degradation, several
studies are being conducted to determine an
efficient cleaning and care procedure for these
leather seats on-board aircraft. Seats condition
and cabin appearance need to be under constant
observation, and it needs additional manpower,
hence a cost increase.
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TAP A340 Cabin viewsA310/A340 Lie Flat Seats in
B/C Case Analysis
Business Class
Lie Flat Seat
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Agenda
Minimising the cost of aircraft interior
maintenance through material selection
A320fam Seat Cover
Selection Case Analysis To what extent is it
possible to reduce aircraft interior maintenance
costs as a result of improvements in terms of
design, reparability and durability?

A310/A340 Lie Flat Seats in B/C Case
Analysis To what extent can aircraft maintenance
programs be optimized to ensure that routine
maintenance is accomplished at an optimal
frequency without increasing non-routine
maintenance?
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TAP considerationsA/C maintenance programs and
routine costs
A320FAM Short haul fleet
A340/A310 Long haul fleet
TAP has been reviewing the scheduled maintenance
tasks to its cabin interior equipment specially
galley equipment. The biggest offenders are LRUs
that have internal cooling fans. The fans direct
cabin air through the unit, and the unit acts as
a filter retaining the dust and fibers.
Eventually, either the fan stalls out, or the air
passages become totally blocked. In any case, the
unit fails from thermal effects, unless it is
periodically removed for cleaning. These programs
are expensive in that they consume labor
resources. At TAP we agree that scheduled
maintenance tasks or preventative maintenance
contribute significantly to the reliability of
the systems. These tasks and their intervals
however must be customized to the operating
environment to the aircraft. Considerations
should be made with regards to the root
structure, passenger profile, environments such
as dust conditions, aircraft utilizations,
aircraft configurations and other factors. As
result we have adapted some of the requirements
of the OEMs.
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Minimising the Cost of Aircraft Interior
Maintenance TAP Case Analysis
Ana Ricardo, Cabin Interiors Painting
Engineer Nuno Trigo Miranda, Avionics Engineer