Panasonic Technical Services is building on its heritage of supporting IFE systems to expand its technical ground handling activities. Graham Dunn reports
While Panasonic Technical Services (PTS) is best known for supporting airlines operating the manufacturer’s in-flight entertainment (IFE) and connectivity systems, it is capitalising on its global footprint and engineering capabilities to develop its technical ground handling operations.
“The original vision was to focus on IFE and connectivity systems delivered by Panasonic,” explained Tom Eskola, Vice-president, Panasonic Technical Services. “In the last few years we have expanded out to maintaining third-party IFE from some of our competitors and also third-party connectivity.
“One of the other more recent developments is to get into technical ground handling and we currently have 11 line stations globally that are operating with authorisation for technical ground handling and contracts from customers as well. It’s actually the fastest-growing part of the PTS business.”
Panasonic Technical Services Senior Director, Sales and Marketing, Emmanuel de Traversay added: “We basically do the turn. The aircraft inspection, supervise fuelling, tyres. Basically get the aircraft ready for the next flight. We do some overnight checks also, but that’s where we stop.”
While Panasonic has 46 line stations globally providing MRO services, the move into technical ground handling began in Australia and New Zealand after one of its customers in the region took its maintenance in-house.
“We had all this infrastructure and all these staff. We had a couple of options,” explained de Traversay. “We either pack everything up and go home, or we try to redeploy these staff to do something else. And we took the challenge, and that’s why we developed it there.”
Eskola added: “The Sydney line station quickly became our centre of excellence for technical ground handling and we expanded from there.”
The most recent additions to Panasonic’s technical ground handling network are its facilities at Los Angeles International and Seattle Tacoma airports and further expansion is on the horizon.
“We are looking at two locations in Europe and two other airports in the United States that we do expect in the next few months will have contracts and will be able to establish that capability,” said Eskola.
“We have a very good track record of performance and preventing delays for aircraft to get turned around and back in flight when they are supposed to, and that’ s really helped us develop the long-term relationships.”
While PTS is expanding its capabilities beyond IFE support, this heritage in the cabin also plays into its offering on the ground.
“We have been maintaining the IFE and cabin for a long time. The cabin is a very different animal and you need different people maintaining it and attention to detail, “ de Traversay said, noting the need for white-glove services. “We can provide that too. We can turn the aircraft around, but we can also have this more ‘cabin maintenance’ aspect.
“Our goal is to grow the technical ground handling, but it is not so much to become number one,” de Traversay added. “It is more to see where we can provide globally the best service to the airlines and maximise our infrastructure.”
