Outsourcing Aircraft Maintenance

Document Number: 2008-01-2266

Date Published: August 2008

Author(s):
Jeffrey A. Weaver - Maintenance Control Supervisor

Abstract:
Within the next decade, U.S. air carriers are expected to outsource over 60 percent of all maintenance performed on their aircraft. From 37 percent in 1996 to 46 percent in 2003, the airline industry and the FAA are lagging behind the fast-paced outsourcing trend. By utilizing insufficient manpower and oversight mechanisms to properly verify the quality of the work being performed at domestic and international MRO’s, the safety of aircraft and the future of air carriers are being compromised. Air carrier auditors continue to use standards to select an MRO that can perform the needed services at the lowest possible price. Systematic to the perceived notion that outsourcing exists to lower costs; aircraft safety and performance are compromised with potentially devastating consequences to air carriers. To reduce the potential for errors in outsourced aircraft maintenance, air carriers must adopt an outsourcing initiative that enables the selection of MRO’s to be based on results-driven criteria around safe and reliable practices. A well-planned and developed air carrier maintenance outsourcing initiative must emphasize an MRO audit plan utilizing safety, diversification, and performance as the primary evaluation standards before making a selection based on cost. The purpose of this thesis is to provide an objective analysis on why the imperative elements of safety, diversification, and performance are critical to the air carrier and how they should be incorporated into a predefined list of air carrier outsourcing objectives in order to determine the best possible provider of aircraft maintenance service.

File Size: 670K
Product Status: In Stock

See other papers presented at Wichita Aviation Technology Congress & Exhibition, August 2008, Wichita, KS, USA, Session: Materials, Processes, Maintenance and Electronics

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