Some two and a half years since its establishment, Buffalo-based Private Jet Maintenance (PJM) has turned its attention to applying its newly acquired Part 145 repair station certificate to opportunities for expansion. Now largely engaged in supporting out-of-production business jets, the company operates out of a modestly sized hangar at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, whose lease expires in November 2024. By that time, an offer from Signature Flight Support to lease a larger hangar could allow it to maintain larger jets such as Bombardier Globals and Challenger 650s.
In a recent interview with AIN, PJM director of maintenance Ben Chieffo explained that profit margins on maintenance of large-cabin jets can exceed those on small aircraft such as Learjets by a factor of three.
“To be honest, a lot of facilities like Bombardier don’t want to see the Learjets anymore; they want to work on Challengers; they want to work on Globals,” he noted. “You can’t blame them because they’re making a lot more money on those.”
Although Chieffo agreed that the trend means more opportunities for small MRO providers to work on what he called legacy types, he stressed that PJM’s business does see work on new aircraft as well.
“A customer from Canada…just bought a brand new [Citation] CJ4 and wanted us to manage it for them,” he said. “So it’s not off the table that we would work new airplanes, because we do.”
Addressing a broader need for maintenance management, PJM also has begun offering the service as a core part of its business. At the time Chieffo spoke with AIN late last year, PJM had signed three customers for the service and “hopefully soon another two,” he revealed.
PJM’s maintenance management offering involves tracking and updating databases and performing post-flight support. The program also includes discounts on parts and labor, a welcome feature given recent cost increases due to inflationary pressures. In fact, PJM’s hourly labor rate has risen from $125 to $155 over the past year and a half.
“[Many] of these operators will have their pilot tracking their maintenance and taking care of all that stuff,” explained Chieffo. “A lot of these pilots are not going to say no because they want the job. But they’re really not interested in doing it, and they don’t do it well.
“We’ve had pilots miss key events,” he continued. “We’ve had them miss warranty work that could have been done but now it’s costing the owner money because that period of ‘free’ is gone.”
Some operators have hired their own directors of maintenance but at a steep cost compared with PJM’s management plan, which runs about $2,500 a month for a King Air or $3,500 a month for a Learjet 60, added Chieffo.
Employing eight A&P mechanics, three of which work in its avionics department, PJM covers the gamut of maintenance needs apart from major engine work. In cases such as a recent incident involving a bird strike on a Citation, it will remove an engine for shipment to an overhaul facility, typically StandardAero, said Chieffo.
Notwithstanding its relatively small size, PJM has embraced new technology such as maintenance software from Tronair called EBIS, which allows mechanics to open work orders on a Microsoft Surface tablet and see any discrepancies. “They can work a job and clock their time in and out, so we’re more accurate with labor hours and what to charge the customer,” explained Chieffo. “Our parts people order parts and assign them to work orders so, as the guys are signing off on discrepancies, the software is actually creating a logbook sticker and at the same time, it’s creating an invoice.
“We’re much faster in getting paperwork done in the end…and we can give the customer a bill a lot quicker,” he added. “A lot of times, our chief inspector will spend almost a day just getting all the paperwork together. But with this software, we’re scanning in all the 8130 [FAA parts identification and origin identification forms] and all the pack lists.”
Although timely parts availability due to supply chain constraints remains a problem, Chieffo said lead times have improved recently. He added that PJM hasn’t seen cases of months-long turnaround times recounted in horror stories by some maintenance directors.
“We haven’t experienced that,” he said. “Generally for the stuff we’re doing so far, we can kick airplanes out the door in a couple of weeks.”