Airports are a large community made up of a lot of moving parts. Included in this community are FBO's, or fixed-based operators, many of which offer maintenance services. If there is an aircraft maintenance facility like that near an established route, it may be worth a stop.
Maintenance facility search
In order to find out which facilities near a certain route have on-site maintenance facilities, a good resource is to visit Airnav.com.
Airnav.com is an airport service information website geared toward pilots and aviation professionals for flight planning, but it can also serve as a browser for mobile tool distributors to find aviation maintenance facilities.
Website navigation
To find out which airports on a route have maintenance operations, click on the 'Airport' tab at the top of the page. This tab will direct users to an airport information search bar. In this section, users can type in a city and state abbreviation and click 'Get Airport Information.' This will pull up a list of airports in the area. From here, click on the airport ID.
A lot of the information on the airport ID page will be relevant only to pilots and aviation professionals, and can be disregarded. While specifically searching for an aviation maintenance facility to service, users will need to scroll past this information until they locate the "FBO, Fuel Providers and Aircraft Ground Support" section in blue.
Under this section will be a list of providers, their contact information and a description of services they provide. This is where mobile distributors can see if and where maintenance is being performed at an airport and give a good lead on new customers in the industry.
Industry trade shows
In addition to searching the internet for facilities near a route, networking at aviation industry trade shows can increase a distributors knowledge of the industry in order to better sell product to their customer base, assist in developing professional connections and give distributors ideas for what to stock.
Three trade shows to consider attending due to their draw of aviation maintenance professional crowds are:
MRO Americas
- MRO Americas is Aviation Week's convention designed for the commercial air transport maintenance, repair and overhaul industry. The next event will be from April 9 to 11, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia.
EAA Air Venture Oshkosh
- Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) hosts an annual gathering of aviation enthusiasts and professionals each summer in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. This is one of the most popular aviation-focused shows, with 500,000 people attending each July. The next event will be held July 23 to 29, 2018.
NBAA Maintenance Conference
- The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Maintenance Conference offers aircraft maintenance training and best practices for aviation technicians and maintenance directors (Hint: Your customers). The next event will be held from May 7 to 9, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas.
