Imagine an aircraft under maintenance. Where do the spare parts installed come from?
In a perfect world, these would come from the Manufacturers, which by tradition keep large stock of parts, throughout the entire aircraft lifecycle.
As time goes by, however, many inconveniences might happen, such as manufacturer bankruptcies or shutdown of tier one suppliers, leading to shortages of the required parts to keep older platforms alive - and flying.
When Dornier stopped the production of the D328 in the early new millennium, there were around 200 aircrafts still in service; on the other hand, the Companies succeeding one another in holding the type certificate missed the objective to guarantee adequate stock levels for the necessary spare parts.
Therefore, several aircraft were sentenced with cannibalization (ops - dismantling) to get spare parts. This is a typical example of how spare parts dealers have helped securing operations for the in-service fleet.
To date, owning a D328 jet's anti ice valve in SV condition is like storing gold bars in a bank vault.
Parts dealers and traders have been matching demand with offer: not as in the legendary 90s using the telephone and fax, but with online platforms - in their technological simplicity - faster and more accurate.
Today, several aircrafts Operators still rely on spare parts brokerage Companies; many others, however, are autonomous and have dedicated Supply Chain teams dedicated to provide everything, from consumables to hard-to-find parts.
And where do they go to search for parts? Certainly not on Amazon or Ebay (the latter tried to compete in the aviation market with the Ebay B2B platform, a brief and unsuccessful operation), but on PartsBase, ILS, Locatory, StockMarket, AVSpares, B2B Aero, ePlane, Aeroxchange or Fipart.
Some of these platforms are unknown to most people, while for other Parts Distributors have become an essential working tool.
Just as in the soda market there is a leader (Coca Cola) and a co-leader (Pepsi), in the Aviation Spare Parts online market there is a leader, PartsBase, and a strong co-leader, ILS - Inventory Locator Service - a former Boeing company.
This is a peculiarity of the market because usually the position of co-leader does not exist in the Internet world. Amazon and Google for example are category leaders and do not have a co-leader.
Each of the platforms listed above has its own peculiarity, although all of them are able to match a demand with a supply.
The more the platform has to offer in terms of listing Companies and services provided, the more universal it becomes, as you are always sure to find stock for your needs (apart from the famous Dornier D328 ice valve!).
PartsBase, for example, has the merit to having created the PBExpo exhibition, a true community where Companies, listing on the platform, have the opportunity to meet, make agreements and widen their networks.
We receive dozens of RFQs every day; we know our prospects come back asking for parts because they know we have stock.
Unfortunately, not all listing Companies have stock for the parts they show out for sale, making the parts search a total waste of time.
This is because trading platforms such as PartsBase are also populated by Traders, who do not have inventory: they just search for parts, on behalf of their potential Clients.
At Horix Aerospace, we only offer for sale what we actually own, and are able to respond to RFQs at lightning speed.
Not only, but to be always sure to show the actual stock, our ERP is synchronized with PartsBase with a dedicated API, and the listing is updated, everyday.
If you also use PartsBase for your research, be sure that if we show stock, we have stock immediately available, which is why we are the Swiss Trusted Solution for Aerospace Components Management.
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About Horix Aerospace
Horix Aerospace Ltd is a horizontally integrated aerospace company, strongly focused in Spare Parts Management solutions for the Business Aircraft Market. Horix has developed both the Trust Consignment Program and the Trust Dismantling Program to offer clients a unique opportunity becoming the Swiss Trusted Solution for Aerospace Components Management. With over $30M in assets under management, Horix Aerospace has become a disruptive force in the Aerospace Industry with both its Trust Dismantling Program and unique Business Model.
Strongly capitalized and managed by a team of industry veterans, Horix Aerospace is proud to be a Swiss owned and operated company.