Aircraft Ownership
Diesel engine crunch hits Diamond
Diamond Aircraft isn’t buying the positive spin, put out recently by the court-appointed bankruptcy administrator for Thielert Aircraft Engines (TAE).
Diamond officials said there is no progress expected until the end of the preliminary insolvency process in July.
“Overall, we have the impression that the insolvency administrator is not able to, nor interested in, providing a path forward, which makes current TAE engine operators and owners a priority,” Diamond officials said in an update to customers. There are hundreds of Diamond aircraft in the customer fleet using Thielert engines.
Diamond customers have several aircraft awaiting parts. Diamond offered up several proposals to Thielert: Buy a sizable inventory of parts, purchase enough engines to get its customers flying again, or pay for materials required to overhaul existing parts. All proposals failed, Diamond officials said.
Instead, insolvency officials have released a parts list with what Diamond officials say are excessive prices. There are very few replacement parts available, Diamond said it has learned. Thielert no longer guarantees parts availability or delivery dates and requires orders to be paid in advance.
A small number of engines were offered to Diamond without warranty or assurance of further support, but when Diamond demanded spare parts and support for the engines, the deal fell through.
May 20, 2008
