Tame's problems on the Quito route – New York

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We will do an analysis of Tame's problems on the route Quito – New York, that are owed among others, to unscheduled maintenance of your Airbus A330 aircraft.

The Airbus A330 with registration HC-COH, msn serial number 348, came to the flag carrier of Ecuador the 9 July 2013, at that time with the aim of starting the route from the Guayaquil airport towards New York (since he arrived in Ecuador this route changed 2 times between Quito and Guayaquil=.

With 18 years in service since initial flight (its first and only previous operator was Emirates), has generated several problems for the state airline on more than one occasion, which is the most important in Ecuador. It should be noted that age is not a real factor in these problems..

have been accounted for at least, 10 Suspensions on the only regular route operated by Tame's largest aircraft. These cancellations have been due to weather problems that normally occur at John F.. Kennedy how are blizzards, hurricanes and others, which don't have attribution to the airline.

but another yes, How have the already known unscheduled maintenance been?.

¿Qué es un mantenimiento no programado?

Like anyone who leaves their house and runs out of battery or has a flat tire, airplanes are not exempt from similar situations, but in a much more complex environment.

Tame, like all airlines, complies with high maintenance standards, where every certain hours or cycles imposed in the manufacturer's manual, the plane must undergo several revisions and changes of materials.

These are scheduled maintenance, but any day the thousands of components, pieces, parts, engines, screens, systems, etc. can fail without warning, no matter how rigorous daily maintenance is carried out.

Depending on the type of unscheduled maintenance, this can be resolved in a matter of minutes, hours or even days, if, for example, this failure requires a new spare part that is not available in the country and must be transported from abroad, with the respective times and costs.

There are simple failures like changing a tire, but other complexes like changing an entire engine, that cannot be done at any airport and requires a specialized workshop, all these are days of affectation to operations.

All airlines suffer from hundreds of unscheduled maintenance a day, but Tame is more sensitive to these problems because it only has one plane for this route. Many times, users do not even know about these situations, given that for example, large airlines have a backup plane ready for these situations, generating low affectation to the user.

Alternatives

as we indicate, Tame has only one plane of this model, so you don't have an immediate backup when problems occur, at least not today.

Every time the A330 HC-COH remains AOG – Aircraft On Ground, for whatever reasons, those affected are obviously the hundreds of users.

Assuming that the plane in each flight is at its maximum capacity that are 278 passengers in two classes, We are talking that for each day that passes, the route between Quito and New York is cancelled., 556 passengers are affected.

At the beginning of the month of September 2018, another of these unscheduled maintenance occurred, this cancellation lasted 6 days, more of 2.800 affected passengers, which have very few options to fulfill their flight and the airline will have to protect and compensate each of them.

The alternatives that could be handled are the following, but contrasted to the reality of Tame:

• Ship Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft: This strategy was carried out by Tame on some occasions between the 2015 and 2016 When I had 17 planes in your fleet. on those occasions 2 planes of these models had to cover the route daily, with high costs, that were increased by the additional scale due to the autonomy of the aircraft. Today, Tame does not have the slack in his fleet as he had back then, so it's not an option today with 10 active aircraft.
• Send passengers on other airlines: sounds like the most practical option, but being something unscheduled, finding seats for so many passengers is practically impossible. What's more, last minute flights are more expensive, which would represent more expense for the airline. other factor, if they were able to find some places, series for the benefit of few, generating claim in affected passengers, better for everyone to stay on land than for a few to travel.
• Temporarily lease another plane: in papers, would be one of the best options, but finding an aircraft with the same characteristics and immediately available is very difficult. other factor, is that many times, scheduled maintenance does not last more than a couple of days and paying for a short lease is too high an expense.
• Have another backup twin plane: this is the best without a doubt, but this plane can't be stopped on the ground, since airplanes must produce to be able to pay their operating costs. Sometime, Tame will have to lease a second Airbus A330 and not just as a plan B for contingencies on this route, but as a new income to put it to fly to profitable destinations, How could a destination in Europe be?, but this will not happen until Tame carries out the case studies for a transatlantic operation.
• Expect: usually, the best option is to wait for the unscheduled maintenance to be fulfilled, since the other alternatives are complex.

As you can see, the outlook is complex for Tame on this route when there are inconveniences, none of the options is immediate and in most unscheduled maintenance you have had, the best option is to wait, since generally, they are short.

These events can happen at any time and to any airline.

¿Seguirá en la flota el HC-COH?

long ago, Ignacio Vallejo indicated in this interview https://www.nlarenas.com/2018/02/entrevista-planes-tame-volver-despegar/, that the renewal or not of the contract of this aircraft will be analyzed.

In that same interview it was learned that the leasing or rental of this Airbus A330 would end this year, but reviewing the airline's publicly accessible documents, His contract ends in July 2019, missing still 9 months.

The monthly rental of the HC-COH has a cost of $395.000, plus maintenance and other expenses.

Too, in the same interview, Tame's intention to incorporate another aircraft of the model was known 330, that would serve as a backup, as to open a new long-haul route, that could be a destination to be confirmed in Europe.

For the year 2019 the contract for the Airbus 320HC-CID aircraft also ends, HC-COE, HC-CPB y Embraer 190 HC-COY, of which only the Embraer 190 the contract would be renewed and the Airbus 320 they would return to their owners, implying the addition of newer aircraft to the Tame fleet over the next year.

This highly demanded route, definitely, requires a plan B, Surely Tame has studied it and plans to execute it in the medium term for the benefit of its national and international image.