MRO Profile: New World Aviation

Aircraft maintenance, charter, and management provider New World Aviation began operations in 1998 at Lehigh Valley International Airport (KABE) in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This placed it close to the busy Northeast corridor, where it could tap into the heavy business jet market. The aviation services business occupies a 1970s-era 85,000-sq-ft hangar, which once housed the corporate flight department for former conglomerate ITT before its breakup in 1995. In addition, New World occupies a newer 20,000-sq-ft hangar to handle its recent growth.

President, CEO, and managing partner Darrell Frey joined the company five years ago, after spending 32 years with Gulfstream in roles such as director of the airframer’s field and airborne support team and general manager of its Savannah, Georgia service center. He noted that New World has expanded over its history from seven technicians in its FAA Part 145 repair station to 50 today. Some of those employees have been there since the company’s founding.

New World specializes in Gulfstream maintenance, with FAA approvals for the GIV, GV, G450, G500, G550, and G650. It expects to add the super-midsize G280 as well. As an operator with Bombardier aircraft in its fleet, it will also work on the Global 5000 and 6000, in addition to the Challenger 604, the Dassault Falcon 900 and 2000, several models of Learjets, Hawkers, and even the Sikorsky S-76, which it once had on its operator certificate. It has up to 10 aircraft under work at a time, with a backlog stretching out through the end of the year. “The neat thing about airplanes is the calendar never stops,” said Frey. “Inspections are pretty steady through the year.”

In terms of work, the facility focuses on scheduled heavy maintenance and inspections on Gulfstreams. “We’ve changed the sponson rib, which is the rib that holds the landing gear on the GIV [and] which is something very few have done outside of the OEM. Through the models, we’ve done all the heavy checks on each, including the G650,”  explained Frey. “Right now we’re doing the 192-month, which is a 16-year inspection on the G650, so it’s actually one of the first. It’s a very comprehensive dive into the structure of the airplane.”

New World is one of the few facilities outside of Gulfstream itself to own and operate a MAUS (mobile, automated, ultrasonic, scanner) system, a device used to replace X-ray technology for non-destructive structural testing. According to Frey, among its applications are the 5,000-landing inspection on the GIV and identification of possible corrosion between the horizontal stabilizer bonded-skin-to-rib attachment points.

“The ultimate goal was not to take the interior out or gain access to put film behind it,” he said. “So, we tested and bought…a MAUS system which basically does a multi-pass on a rail on the outside, and gives you a picture of every layer of metal without having to put film behind it,” Frey continued. “Now that the G650 has got bonded skin to rib, it’s used to inspect impact damage and damage to the fuselage; it’s going to grow into being a very important inspection tool.”

New World also has an avionics shop and is an authorized dealer for Starlink, Honeywell, Gogo, CMS, and DPI.

The company is in operation seven days a week, with three shifts total: a day shift, a second shift, and then a weekend shift. “What we really try to focus on is downtime,” said Frey. “At Gulfstream, I started the Fast team, and what I learned very quickly from that and in other roles I had was downtime on these airplanes was more important than the cost, because every day does cost. Everything we’ve done, from these inspections to our Starlink installs, has focused on downtime, and, of course, the quality side of it.” As a result, the company strives to adhere to its quoted maintenance schedules and does not charge any overtime.

With its recent growth spurt on the maintenance side, talent recruitment—as with most maintenance facilities—is a major consideration for New World. “There’s a challenge in experience that everybody’s trying to deal with because of the aging-out process, but the Northeast is not really so bad,” Frey told AIN. “I mean, there’s people out there.”

While the company’s technician staff averages about 10 years of experience, it looks to take advantage of the area’s airframe and powerplant training programs to swell its ranks, with one apprentice per shift. “Our focus has really been to try to grow local to be a long-term solution for the MRO,” said Frey, adding that he intends to hire more staff for the weekend shift. “The thing is just making sure you stay in front of your people and make sure they’re happy doing what they’re doing. What we’re doing is fun, and we need to make it that way and teach people airplanes.” An additional focus is on recruiting ex-military and female technicians.

Last year, the company started up a satellite repair facility at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in Florida with 26 employees. Located in a 24,000-sq-ft hangar on the Sheltair campus, the facility can accommodate two large-cabin business jets indoors at a time, plus another five aircraft on the ramp.