march2021 - 42

ARSA INSIGHT

Every Year
Trade associations, like all life, evolve around the calendar. There are events
to plan, meetings to support and legislative schedules to observe. The issues
change, but you can set your plans to the yearly routines that serve the industry.

By Brett Levanto

Brett Levanto is
vice president of
operations of Obadal,
Filler, MacLeod &
Klein, P.L.C. managing
firm and client
communications
in conjunction with
regulatory and
legislative policy
initiatives. He
provides strategic
and logistical support
for the Aeronautical
Repair Station
Association.

42

MARCH 2021	

disruptions, the U.S. maintenance industry had by
As ARSA executive director Sarah MacLeod once
wrote: " Anything worth doing is worth doing again. "
June 2020 lost more than 50,000 jobs and nearly 40%
That's the truth; our ritual-like schedule maintains
of its business activity. Companies with a more diverse
momentum and gets things done.
customer base such as air cargo, business aviation,
For ARSA and its members, the March release of
military or government work, weren't hit as hard and,
the Global Fleet & MRO Market Assessment is an
in some cases, grew. Looking ahead, " return to normal "
annual highlight. Produced by the association's partperspectives were diverse: from the hopeful fifth preners at Oliver Wyman, the
dicting they'd be back to
report connects long-term
pre-pandemic levels by the
commercial and business
end of 2020 to the handaviation fleet trends to
ful that believed renewal
business and workforce
would never come - and
projections. The complete
the healthy portion who
What began decades ago as ARSA's
honestly admitted they
analysis is available only
Annual Repair Symposium has evolved
to association members,
didn't know.
into a week-long event including executive
but its summaries and
That knowledge drove
branch briefings, grassroots legislative
advocacy and world-class regulatory
information sheets power
an industry-wide effort to
compliance and business content. The
the maintenance compursue American relief.
delivery may be different in 2021 -
The work was filled with
munity's advocacy with
participants will engage online - but
government officials.
successes, contract mainthe world-class insight provided during
This year is no differtenance's inclusion in
the event will be the same as ever.
recovery programs, payent, though the details are
Join in, follow along or catch up on
certainly new. During the
roll protection for small
the event at arsa.org/conference.
aviation companies, and
association's Legislative
lessons learned, denial of
Day on March 10, the
off-airport contractors, complications with certain
2021 market report will be released. (Visit arsa.org/
conference to participate or follow up.) Last year's
ownership structures seeking SBA loans. Overall, the
report came out just days before the world slid into
state of the aviation world is undeniably better than
lockdown and the aviation business environment
it would have been - you can catch up on the work
changed dramatically.
that got us here at arsa.org/covid19-relief.
In the months that followed, ARSA and its allies
March has returned. A full year has elapsed. We
worked hard in keeping up with the pandemic's
once again await the publication of an Annual Fleet &
impact. Oliver Wyman posted a dashboard tracking
MRO Market report. While the findings don't change
fleet changes from air carrier traffic reductions. The
anything, describing what has happened over the last
association maintained a stream of updates at arsa.org/
12 months and considering what it means for the next
anti-viral-measures and including the results of a sumten years is invaluable.
mer survey assessing employment and revenue trends.
No matter what the data shows, we'll make good.
The results were both stark and instructive. ARSA's
It's what we do every year.
analysis projected that because of COVID-related

2021 ARSA Annual
Conference - March 9-12

AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY
http://www.arsa.org/conference http://www.arsa.org/conference http://www.arsa.org/conference http://www.arsa.org/covid19-relief http://www.arsa.org/anti-viral-measures http://www.arsa.org/anti-viral-measures
march2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of march2021
