Fast 5: GA Telesis Eyes Acquisition, Technology Opportunities

GA Telesis has been ramping up its acquisition portfolio in recent months, signing a deal to buy AAR’s landing gear business and significantly growing its inventory of aircraft and engines. Founder and CEO Abdol Moabery spoke with Aviation Week Network about the company’s ambitious growth plans for 2025.

GA Telesis has recently been busy acquiring new aircraft and engine assets, including 23 Airbus A320s from Spirit Airlines and eight Pratt & Whitney PW4000s. What can you tell us about your used serviceable material (USM) strategy this year?

There's never been more focus on USM than the last few years, and part of that is a result of the OEMs’ struggle with supply chain. It's really put USM in the spotlight. The ability of the USM providers to be there when the OEMs weren't able to support [customers] was something that raised the awareness of the importance of the USM market. So, we will always have a big focus [on USM]. It's one of our biggest businesses. That said, from our perspective, having a centralized warehouse in South Florida isn't being a global provider. We've had a distribution center in the UK for close to 20 years, we have [them] in two locations in Asia, and we will try to build one this year somewhere in Central Asia, potentially in Turkey as well. We’re exploring that, and then on to South America to build something there to support that region. I think if you tie in what we're doing in our ecosystem, in connecting artificial intelligence and our WILBUR system, hopefully we'll know what parts should be in what location and when. That’s ultimately our goal:  Taking a lesson from what Amazon's been able to do with its distribution centers by positioning the right items in the right place at the right time.

What we're providing to the industry is a phrase that we've now trademarked: “Transparency and Immediacy.” We want to give the airlines transparency into everything we provide, and we want to provide it with immediacy. I could provide an airline in Asia transparency into what I'm providing, but I can't provide them immediacy. Immediacy means I'm there in real time, and they can have the part the same day or the next day as needed. . Ultimately, our goal is to democratize the availability of USM to every airline in the world, and that hasn't always existed. We are working with the Civil Aviation Administration of China on initiatives to get them comfortable with the growth and use of USM, which wasn't always the case. But they are open to it and embracing the need. It’s something that we're excited about, and we plan on hopefully making some announcements there by the end of the year.

GA Telesis also recently announced an agreement to acquire AAR’s landing gear overhaul business and its wheels and brakes business unit. How will these new businesses drive growth for GA Telesis?

We've been in the landing gear business for about four or five years, and that business was one of our fastest growing sectors within our MRO Services group, so we're very excited about it. We were under a lot of pressure from our airline customers to expand, and the opportunity to acquire AAR’s business came up. We were aligned with AAR’s management on the long-term growth, and we're going to be partnered with AAR on some of the contracts that they have with the U.S. Air Force. While we're buying the business, we're going to be partnering with them on a lot of these contracts, as they'll be the prime and we’ll be the sub on doing the work for the Air Force. But that said, the combined businesses will make us the largest independent landing gear MRO in the Americas.

We have further expansion plans to build that out and potentially be the largest in the world. It is obviously an integral part of the aircraft ecosystem and, frankly speaking, I think we're good at it. We just want to provide another service in greater scale to the airline ecosystem that we could continue to grow upon.

Can we expect to see any more acquisitions in the near future?

We're working on another one, and hopefully it comes to fruition. These things are complicated, but for us, the strategy is simple. Any acquisition we do has to fit within the ecosystem and then it's easy. It's like a light switch for us. We incorporate a new business and we alert our customers that there is now this availability within the ecosystem. We already have a relationship. We already have the quality approvals. Now we just have to get to work and provide them another resource in supporting them. So, for us, expanding the ecosystem with greater capabilities, both vertically and horizontally, and entering into new business types is something very exciting.

GA Telesis has been heavily investing in technology initiatives, such as the launches last year of its new Digital Innovation and R&D Center in Ankara, Turkey and its WILBUR parts provenance and records platform. What is on the 2025 roadmap for your technology strategy?

Our Digital Innovation Group (DIG), run by Jason Reed, is where I spend a lot of my time, and that is looking at the future of not only our business, but the industry. We have two groups within DIG. One group is AI centered, and one group is infrastructure centered. On the AI side, we're trying to create predictive tools that will allow operators, ourselves and other suppliers to better support the industry. We are creating these tools not only for ourselves, but for the industry, so that we can all be more efficient. The way we look at it, we are an ecosystem. The airlines are the oxygen in the ecosystem. Anything we can do to optimize their business, lower the cost for available seat mile or revenue ton, or give them a better chance of succeeding in a market that is incredibly competitive, [is also] helping ourselves. The success of the industry will lead to our own success.

We have a great group under Jason [Reed], run by Dr. Rainford Knight. He's built a team of data scientists, full of PhDs and highly educated people, who are working every day on figuring it out and collaborating. There's a ton of collaboration going on with airlines right now, and we're really excited about that and how open the airlines are to work with us on helping them use their data to optimize their businesses.

On the other side of it, we have what I'll call our infrastructure side, and that’s what WILBUR is. The intention of WILBUR is to optimize the provenance and document flows related to component transfer. We are building a system that will tokenize information and allow airlines to move parts in and out of their system in a very easy and streamlined way, but also in a way that, when that part comes into their system, they know where it came from and its history. And when it leaves their system, the next owner or borrower or MRO knows all that information as well. Again, we’re building WILBUR for the industry, because [the industry is] still dealing with papers and pens. Every now and then we scan documents and tell people we're digital, but we're not. We really need to optimize and catch up with the rest of the industries that have already moved on to a digital framework. And that's really why I call it infrastructure, because we're building this system that will be the digital framework that the industry can use.

How are you approaching workforce development to accommodate all this growth?

I think our big focus the last few years, starting around COVID, is our investment in people. What we've realized is, no matter how great our inventory is, no matter how great our turnaround times are on engines or landing gear or parts, it really comes down to the people. We're putting a lot of focus on developing the industry through providing scholarships and educational opportunities within our own company, and through investing in people. We want more good people, and that's where a lot of my focus will be—on developing that culture.