Hourly cost maintenance provider JSSI is marking the 10th anniversary of its Parts & Leasing division. What started as an in-house procurement unit now has more than 100,000 business aircraft parts in stock, including more than 70 engines and APUs that it leases to operators.
This inventory is housed in warehouses around the world to expedite access for the U.S. company’s customers. JSSI now has sourcing relationships with more than 600 vendors.
Last year, JSSI launched its new PartsHub e-commerce platform that draws on maintenance intelligence data the company compiles from several thousand aircraft. This data includes the reliability records for individual parts to help predict inventory needs across the fleet the company supports.
Since it opened, PartsHub has been used for upwards of 14,000 searches resulting in quote requests worth more than $21 million. As well as being used by JSSI’s internal team, the free-to-use system is accessed by individual operators and providers of maintenance, repair, and overhaul providers.
In response to input from customers, JSSI has further refined its procurement processes with the introduction of the new rotable program that provides analysis of a client’s needs to help them to optimize inventory planning. The company has also upgraded its supply chain solutions service that allows clients to hire JSSI staff to handle all aspects of parts buying, including core returns and warranty claims.
“The JSSI supply-chain team enables my maintenance control team to focus on the aircraft issues as opposed to parts logistics,” said Eric Bewersdorf, v-p of fleet maintenance at George J. Priester Aviation. “Their ability to find odd parts and parts near obsolescence is a key factor in our customer experience. The partnership we have with JSSI is only improving our operational ability.”
This month, JSSI has boosted its leadership team with the appointment of industry veteran Sean McGeough as its new executive v-p for business development in North America. McGeough joins the group from Airbus Corporate Jets, where he was commercial v-p, and he has previously had senior management positions with Wheels Up, Aerion, Nextant Aerospace, and Hawker Beechcraft.
McGeough told AIN that in his previous jobs he has seen JSSI’s involvement in aircraft transactions growing, whether through the hourly cost program or the provision of finance and spare parts. “They make everything more seamless, and especially for first-time aircraft buyers, offering an extension to [a customer’s] flight department or maintenance team,” he explained.
In his view, this support is vital, and especially at a time when the value proposition of business aircraft is increasingly scrutinized. “Some of the new clients who came into the market during Covid got the shock of their lives when the first aircraft maintenance bills came in,” McGeough recollected. “There are no surprises with JSSI.”
In previous incarnations, McGeough has worked well beyond North America and has seen for himself what it means to have the right backup. “When I was in Africa, I couldn’t get a King Air or a Hawker sold unless there was an [hourly cost] engine program available,” he recounted. “What JSSI does is all about relationships, as I’ve seen for myself.”
JSSI has also appointed David Caporali to the new role of senior v-o for Conklin & de Decker and strategy. He has previously served as director of sales at Viking Air and as general sales manager at Lider Aviação, where he specialized in Hawker Beechcraft products in Brazil and North America.
The company's Conklin & de Decker unit provides independently-gathered data related to business aircraft operating costs and performance.