JetBlue TrueBlue - JetBlue fleet overhauls done in El Salvador

JetBlue Airways sends some of its fleet to El Salvador for overhauls.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Business/story?id=432403&page=1

I will not be flying JetBlue until this practice stops. There have been too many airline crashes because of maintenance problems. When airline Execs are counting maintenance beans to this level, I am not going to risk flying that airline.

Please note that I did not say that JetBlue is guilty of this, but only that I'm not willing to risk it. Doesn't give that warm, fuzzy feeling.

JetBlue Airways sends some of its fleet to El Salvador for overhauls.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Business/story?id=432403&page=1

I will not be flying JetBlue until this practice stops. There have been too many airline crashes because of maintenance problems. When airline Execs are counting maintenance beans to this level, I am not going to risk flying that airline.

Please note that I did not say that JetBlue is guilty of this, but only that I'm not willing to risk it. Doesn't give that warm, fuzzy feeling.

It would be interesting to see a study of the number of maintenance errors at foreign maintenance bases versus US maintenance bases. Without that information, we can't draw any safety-related conclusions from this practice. Of course, you might oppose this practice for non-safety-related reasons (jobs, economy, etc.), but then you get into the standard offshoring debate which I don't think either side has "won" yet.

It would be interesting to see a study of the number of maintenance errors at foreign maintenance bases versus US maintenance bases. Without that information, we can't draw any safety-related conclusions from this practice. Of course, you might oppose this practice for non-safety-related reasons (jobs, economy, etc.), but then you get into the standard offshoring debate which I don't think either side has "won" yet.

So you aren't flying HP, Southwest, United, Northwest. Just American. How do we know that outsourcing is less safe.

So you aren't flying HP, Southwest, United, Northwest. Just American. How do we know that outsourcing is less safe.

I think you meant to quote the OP, not me. :)

I think you meant to quote the OP, not me. :)

Yep, sorry
:)

I am guessing that the work gets outsourced to either TACA or whoever TACA has an agreement with; so my question is would you be willing to fly TACA?

I will not be flying JetBlue until this practice stops. There have been too many airline crashes because of maintenance problems. When airline Execs are counting maintenance beans to this level, I am not going to risk flying that airline.


Ignorance such as this is dangerous, especially without stated fact. Poor maintenance can happen anywhere in any country if there are no controls in place. Remember Alaska Airlines Flight 261, which crashed of the coast of So California. That maintenance was done by an American Airline in America.

I've done a lot of traveling in South America and can say when it comes to airplanes their quality control is excellent. Why not outsource when you can save the company money?

Umm.... Why are people so surprised about this?

There's a reason B6 can keep its fares so low.

Moving maintenance to the US will dramatically increase its cost, and therefore the cost of a JetBlue ticket. I think that'd hurt its business much more than a few "angry about outsourcing" people who refuse to fly.

When it comes to safety outsourcing isn't a bad deal. For example, Northwest has a lot of their maintenance done in Singapore where the regulations are even stricter than they are here.

Ill 2nd it that the firm that does it for Taca probably does it for B6 as its a Taca Hub down there.
Now can someone please remind me the last time that Taca had a crash or mishap due to faulty maintance. Ive flown Taca, Lacsa many times and never had a problem

Air Canada also does a lot of work for JetBlue and other big Airbus users in Winnipeg.

I'm sure that the pilots love to vacation on the company dime and all while they are waiting for their jet to get fixed; but I wonder how much it costs to fly an empty jet that far for maintenance, it can't be cheap so the maintenance must be alot cheaper down there than they are here.

I guess it depends on what other options there are in the US for this type of work. I don't know what kind of schedule they would keep for the planes going there, but I would suspect it would be taken out of service in Florida, flown empty to El Salvador, the crew picks up a completed aircraft and flies it back to Florida, where it re-enters the system.

There have been too many airline crashes because of maintenance problems.


Can you be more specific?

And where was the maintenance done?

Not only are maintenance standards strict, the FAA oversees EVERYTHING that EVERY domestic airline does. The FAA must approve ANY vendors that do any type of maintenance on ANY US registered aircraft. In fact, the airline I work for has all of its heavy engine work done by Pratt and Whitney in Canada and we haven't had any engine failures ever. Comments such as those made by the op are irresponsible to say the least. By the way, where is Airbus located? Overseas in France...so perhaps the manufacturing standards are not as good as Boeing's? I highly doubt that! Sorry for the rant but had to get that off my chest. Cheers!

airliners.net has a photo of a jetBlue plane in Canada getting its engine serviced and the info reads "Regular event here, jetBlue has their engines serviced here in Canada"

Just thought I'd add..

I think that is a common practice nowaday. I believe that NW has a A330-200 repairng station at ICN, and CO's Boeing 777s are sent to HK once a while for checks. CX, QF, and various airlines also send their a/c to Xiamen for maintenance... I am more opposed to outsourcing due to the reason of protecting jobs in the US or the local origin... but with a strong agency like FAA, no airlines will dare to risk safety over any factors...

Carfield

I think that is a common practice nowaday. ... I am more opposed to outsourcing due to the reason of protecting jobs in the US or the local origin... but with a strong agency like FAA, no airlines will dare to risk safety over any factors...

Carfield
I believe some airlines (jetblue and one or two others that I forget) have their major maintenance work done in Honduras. And about the outsourcing...I disagree but won't publicly duke it out on the B6 forum.

Plane maintenance seems to be a very effecient use of outsourcing. The most effecient would be to have it done at the hub where the planes are parked. But trying to do heavy work at JFK sounds like a recipe for high expenses. If you are going to fly a jet somewhere, the cost to get to Hondorus is probably not that much different than to Indianapolis or some other US city. Since most planes will end up in Florida anyway, it may be cheaper.

Haven't most cases of maintenance related crashes been due to performance of US maintenance teams?

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-03-29-delta-cuts_x.htm

Seems that Delta is now outsourcing a lot of their maintenance and cutting the jobs of 2000 mechanics. It also has a chart that shows the percentage of maintenance work that is outsourced by all american airlines.

Yeah JetBlue has maintenance done by ACTS in Winnipeg. The way we heard the news about Delta was that they were cutting 2000 jobs in the company, not 2000 mechanics because of the outsourcing to ACTS (which will add 300 jobs in Vancouver).