Al, you said "It almost sounds like union rhetoric." You have to consider the source. The article was from the Washington Post, not exactly a conservative and unbiased newspaper. I have to agree that there is nothing wrong with outsourcing maintenance. In fact, it says something when it is actually cheaper to fly an aircraft to an airport for maintenance that is not only offline (in JetBlue's case) but is also in an entirely different country. David R http://home.comcast.net/~damiross/books.html www.sequoians.com www.chanticleers.org -----Original Message----- From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Allan9 Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 13:41 To: AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Outsourcing our Safety (JetBlue's Maintenance) I have to completely agree. The other noteworthy thing is their maintenance program and how it is accomplished is inspected and approved by the FAA Flight Safety Division. While I am not defending their contract maintenance how many other US Carriers use contract maintenance. Before Eastern did their swan dive the were one of the largest maintenance providers in the world. They made more money off contract maintenance thatn anything else. It almost sounds like union rhetoric. Al ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alireza Alivandivafa" <DEmocrat2n@xxxxxxx> To: <AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 2:56 PM Subject: Re: Outsourcing our Safety (JetBlue's Maintenance) > You know, ordinarily I would be all over the fact that B6 contracts their > heavy MX out, particularly to a place with low wages, but there are > somethings > that are not shown here. First, Aeroman (TACA's MX arm) is one of the > best out > their at performing heavy MX, and specializes in A320 family aircraft > (most of > the TACA fleet is A320 family). Additionally, the wages TACA does pay are > well above the living wage in El Salvador and working conditions for their > mechanics are quite good. They are fully certified by Airbus to work on > the > aircraft, just like Lufthansa Technik, United Services, Air Canada or any > other > airline. If this was an actual case of abuse or shoddy maintainance, that > would > be one thing, but it is not. In actuality, there have been several gear > twisting incidents on A320 family aircraft, including at least 3 with > United and 2 > with jetBlue, so I am thinking this is more a design flaw than a > maintainance > issue