Event Round Up - September / October

ISTAT Istanbul.

For us the talk at ISTAT Istanbul was all about lease extensions and our acquisition by Unical.
It's always interesting to meet up with customers face-to-face. It was a great opportunity this year to add some detail to the acquisition news. We mean it when we say ‘no change’ and that ecube will remail independent.  

We plan to maintain the trust and respect we have built up with our customers. In practice this means, no detailed data sharing (we’ll continue with separate ERP systems). We’ll also continue to offer slots of 4 to 8 weeks between an aircraft sale and its disassembly beginning. We can do this because we’re processing 4 aircraft a month in both the USA and UK, along with 2 a month in Spain.

Lease extensions have undoubtably had an effect on the disassembly industry. That bow wave of expected retirements is still being pushed out it seems.

At ecube though, we’re on target for the year and have a busy pipeline for the winter. We find that customers like the expertise we bring to aircraft disassembly. In the last year we’ve taken out engines and a stabiliser, among other, easier parts.  If you’re still looking for disassembly work this winter, drop us a line.

MRO Asia

Heading out to Singapore for MRO Asia was a first for the ecube team. The event was high-energy, busy with good airline representation. We had some very fascinating conversations about recycling too. It’s long been a challenge to recycle carbon fibre. Following MRO Asia, we’re now in discussions to produce longer strands, which will open up recycling possibilities.

We also fielded interest about a disassembly-focussed facility in Asia. It’s something we’re evaluating. The region looks very interesting.

IAEG, Madrid.

We’re focussed on reducing the industry’s impact on the environment. At IAEG, our CEO, Lee McConnellogue spoke about the challenges of commitment to recycling and cash. Rather than just create new materials, we need to work out how to build more with old materials. Other industries, like the car sector, are already doing this.

We have the technical ability, but we need the business case.

The industry needs to work on its commitment to avoiding this. A lot of work is going in to recycling metals and other plane parts. We now need to focus on the last, and most difficult, materials to recycle and reuse.

Our aim is to be a key player in supply of secondary source carbon composites. If you’re interested in this; give us a call.