Continental Airlines

CAL disagrees with the fleet cost estimates for SB 737-78-1088. This service bulletin requires the thrust reverser (TR) to be removed and sent to an overhaul facility for repair. Any inner wall delamination requires the repair be performed in an autoclave with requires dis-assembly of the TR. During dis-assembly and inspection of components, the return to service cost per TR half is ranging from $16,000 to $56,000 depending on the hours/cycles on the TR. CAL is estimating $34,000,000.00 dollars for its fleet. Due to the age of CAL fleet, 116 AC will have to comply with SB 737-78-1088 within 30 months. CAL does not want to pull an aircraft out of service to perform SB 737-78-1082 within 24 months and again to perform SB 737-78-1088 within 30 months. CAL would like the compliance time for these AC to be 30 months. To meet the compliance time of 24 months, CAL will have to perform 5 AC per month. This minor compliance time change will reduce our schedule to 4 AC per month. These AC will have the TR removed and replaced due to the incorporation of SB 737-78-1069. Due to the limited number of spare TR halves available, performing 4 aircraft (16 TR halves) per month will be difficult.