PLANNING for the aircraft redelivery should begin 12 months before the end of lease date due to the complex nature of end of lease transitions
The Lessor will start the preparation process by setting up a Pre-Redelivery Meeting (PRM) with the Lessee (Airline).
A successful PRM will have the following agenda;
When an aircraft is leased one consideration is always financial awareness; this is of particular note when considering high-cost items such as the engines.
When we review a typical lease and look for return conditions associated with an engine, then we might see some requirements such as:
“Each Engine will have no more than 7,000 Flight Hours since the last Qualified Performance Restoration and each Engine LLP will have at least 4,500 Cycles remaining to operate until its next anticipated removal.”
The landing gear is a complex area to review largely due that the entire landing gear assembly has its own maintenance requirements as defined by the manufacturer and commonly contains some LLP’s (Life Limited Parts).
It is often easier to consider the Landing Gear as the Hard Time Component (HT) and the Parts that make up the Landing gear in many cases are Life Limited Parts (LLP).
The maintenance requirements include overhauls in which the landing gear must be removed from the aircraft and sent to shop for them to be overhauled. This process alone is very expensive and time consuming.
During a lease return or new lease, the aircraft physical inspections are an integral part of the function, and they can combine several purposes including:
– It can be a review of the damage chart; comparing the chart to the physical aircraft to ensure accuracy.
– The review may consider part number & serial number verification checks.
– You might additionally perform conditional inspections based on the lease conditions (brake wear percentage or tyre condition for example).
– There might be an expectation to give oversight and observation during certain aspects or the aircraft preparation for lease out or lease return including borescope, engine ground run or demo flight for example.
By definition a “covenant” is a formal agreement between the owner (Lessor) and the airline (Lessee) to perform specified actions.
After reviewing a copy of the technical lease requirements, the lessor, or consultant representing the lessor, should be aware of the specified “covenants” and pay particular attention to those actions relating to qualifying maintenance events and the condition and certification of the airframe and its various components at redelivery.