GKN Aerospace Launches Transparencies Aftermarket Service

GKN Aerospace has launched a new Transparencies Aftermarket Service (TAS), focused on meeting the needs of commercial transport operators for ever faster, more responsive and more cost-effective cockpit and cabin window maintenance.

GKN Aerospace - TAS will offer a comprehensive window repair, framing and exchange service to airlines and freight carriers that can achieve up to 20% savings on their annual ATA 56 spend.

Initially operating from the company’s transparencies manufacturing facility in Garden Grove, CA, GKN Aerospace expects to open TAS facilities in Europe during 2016 and Asia by mid-2017.

The new TAS operation draws on GKN Aerospace’s strength in the aircraft transparencies market. Today, the company provides transparencies to almost all airlines and its flight deck windows, passenger cabin windows (PCW) and glazings are widely acknowledged as best-in-class. Over 2 million of its PCW are in service today as standard fit on all Boeing and Embraer aircraft, as well as a large portion of the Airbus fleet.

By fully exploiting this technology leadership, TAS will lower operator maintenance costs by: reducing the amount of inventory each must hold; offering highly cost-effective repair or replacement choices; speeding repair or replacement turn-around times; providing an AOG (aircraft on the ground) maintenance repair and overhaul service with full FAA 145 and EASA repair station capabilities.

Gavin Wesson, Senior Vice President, GKN Aerospace Special Products Group, said, “This new structure will allow us to offer a service that is closely aligned with the operational needs of the airlines and freight carriers. TAS combines the capability of a world-class Tier 1 OEM (original equipment manufacturer), with the service levels and responsiveness offered by 3rd party repair stations, providing our customers the products they need, when they need them, and the services that will reduce their MRO spend.”