Duncan Aviation is making a number of promises to its AOG customers. The company says that AOG requests will be acknowledged within 30 minutes by a member of the rapid response team. Duncan will then complete a follow-up within the hour, with labour availability and logistic planning. It then pledges to be onsite within 24 hours to resolve the situation and return aircraft to service.

This promise is backed by more than 175 Duncan Aviation airframe, engine, and avionics technicians strategically located across the US. “Being able to stand behind this promise with confidence began when we changed the way our teams communicated with each other,” says Kasey Harwick, Duncan Aviation's VP of aircraft services. “We got together with our talented IT department to develop an internal communications app that facilitates getting an AOG customer to the right team as quickly as possible.”

A call received through Duncan Aviation's published AOG number is answered by a team trained to ask the right questions to identify the customer's AOG issue, whether airframe, avionics or engine. This information is immediately routed through the app to the person on-call and nearest to the event, putting the right person in contact with the customer as quickly as possible. Duncan Aviation has had in-the-field, on-location services in place since 1985 through its satellite avionics locations. And in 2000, the company launched its engine rapid response teams.

In 2019, the RRT AOG network experienced another expansion. Due to increased customer demand for more mobile airframe AOG and inspection services, three rapid response teams specialising in airframe services were formed and based at Duncan Aviation's three MRO facilities in Battle Creek, Michigan; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Provo, Utah.

“Being based out of the MROs gives us access to all of their available tooling and equipment,” says Tyler Spurling, RRT assistant manager MRO. “That greatly reduces the cost to and increases our efficiency for our customers.”

When asked what AOG services are available through this mobile network consisting of 30 satellite locations, 16 engine RRT launch sites and three airframe RRT teams, Harwick said it was difficult to quantify. “Our airframe and engine RRTs and satellite shops can handle many different types of squawks and services, both planned and unplanned. However, when it comes to AOG events, we can be boots-on-the-ground troubleshooting the squawk while keeping in close contact with our main MRO facilities for tooling, GSE and potentially additional support depending on the issue. We come prepared because it is our mission to ensure our customers don't miss theirs due to an AOG situation.”