76 Business View - January 2016
cient and less costly version of the same size aircraft.
In addition, aircraft may also be replaced because of
a lack of demand for that particular size of aircraft or
an airline changing its route structure and therefore
aircraft needs. The airline will opt to start retiring some
of those aircraft early and sometimes they’ll retire an
entire fleet. Usually they will retire a few at a time over
the course of several years but that doesn’t mean that
the airline still won’t have versions of that aircraft to
support. Furthermore, other airlines continue flying
the same aircraft type and that’s where UAM comes
in to help.
Kling explains that while some small, start-up com-
panies have appeared recently to take advantage of
the fact that many airlines were retiring their “gas guz-
zlers,” UAM is not only one of the first companies in its
field, it is the only privately-held company of its size left
in the world. “Everyone else has been bought out by
different VC funds, hedge funds, or banks; we are the
only one that hasn’t been acquired,” he says.
What also differentiates UAM is that it only uses li-
censed, Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) mechanics
who are certified by the Federal Aviation Administra-
tion (FAA) and precisely trained in aircraft disassembly.
“When you’re removing components,” he says, “the
slightest error in the removal process can completely
remove all the value from the component. So if you
have a Thrust Reverser, for example, that would sell
for $250K on an aircraft, and somebody who doesn’t
know what they’re doing goes in there and cuts the
door out, that door’s worth nothing now. We have a
reputation in the industry as being extremely surgical
in our removal process – precise and measured.”
Kling says that for UAM, 80 percent of the value in an
acquired aircraft will be in its engine. “The other 20
percent of the value is in the airframe and components
LOGISTICS
