Aircraft maintenance is a critical aspect of ensuring your aircraft remains in optimal condition and ready for flight. In today’s challenging aviation environment, choosing the right maintenance provider has become more complex due to factors like scheduling bottlenecks, supply shortages, and rising costs. Flight departments must balance quality, reliability, and cost-effectiveness when selecting their MRO partner. This blog will explore key considerations to help you make an informed decision when it comes to maintaining your aircraft and ensuring its longevity. Continue reading to learn more about how to ensure you are receiving the beast aircraft maintenance support.
During my time as a demonstration pilot, I enjoyed providing entry-into-service pilot support to new aircraft buyers. It provided an opportunity to help a new operation start on a good footing while shaping expectations of what role a maintenance facility would play during Aircraft on Ground (AOG) situations and scheduled maintenance events.
As part of this, I tried to explain that it would be unreasonable for the owner to show up at a maintenance provider unexpectedly with an AOG issue, and then open multiple work orders of non-critical squawks.
I emphasized that AOG support was exactly that; a means to return the airplane to flying status. The scheduled maintenance visit was the correct occasion to resolve all the other non- critical discrepancies with the airplane, though in recent years, the maintenance industry has been squeezed, making scheduling such work more complex than it was before.
The past few years saw record sales of new and pre-owned business aircraft. Simultaneously, Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) centers already working at capacity experienced scheduling bottlenecks and supply shortages.
Compounding their challenges, they lost a cadre of experienced mechanics who either retired, pursued larger salaries, or sought out opportunities to support single airplanes in new flight departments.
Compounded by these challenges, selecting a maintenance provider and scheduling the next maintenance event for your aircraft now requires you to carefully combine your professional relationships to find availability of maintenance slots, track down a center with access to the necessary parts, and find one that offers fair pricing (though we must account for the fact maintenance costs have risen dramatically in recent years).
So where is a Flight Department to begin with juggling these different factors and ensure the maintenance support they receive is optimal in today’s challenging environment?
Don’t be Shy, Despite the Aircraft MRO Challenges
The squeeze that has been created by these various challenges faced by the maintenance industry should not negate the fact your selected maintenance provider should have proven experience with the specific make and model you operate.
Don’t be shy about verifying the prospective MRO shop’s familiarity and experience with types, systems, and technologies that apply to your aircraft, or requesting examples of work on similar models. This is especially important when relying on a maintenance provider to correct unexpected inspection findings, such as corrosion sheet metal work.
Certification is also essential. Verify the required approvals to work on your aircraft registration certificate (such as FAA or EASA).
Does the maintenance provider have the relevant certifications, such as approval from the OEM to support warranty work, or install STCs, or specific powerplant and airframe certifications ensuring the airplane will be legally airworthy?
It can be useful to select maintenance providers offering a multitude of skills. Choosing one which can handle airframe, engine, paint, and interior work as well as AOG support for emergencies will reduce the need to ferry the aircraft between multiple providers, minimize scheduling and downtime complications, and limit the shipping of major components, saving both time and money.
Determining the Maintenance Provider’s Industry Reputation
A provider’s reputation in the industry is usually a good indicator of quality and reliability. In this regard, check their track record for delivering on time, for meeting reasonable client expectations, and for adhering to safety standards.
Consider asking for references from the MRO/AOG provider’s clients with similar aircraft and operational needs to your own, and ensure you meet face-to-face with the people who will be leading any maintenance projects on your aircraft.
Verify the safety protocols and quality assurance processes at the provider that ensure reliability and safety, and that an internal auditing team regularly inspects the work for compliance. Your focus on safety and adherence to quality assurance protocols will reduce the likelihood of inferior quality, errors, and accidents.
The ability to procure parts and resources will significantly affect maintenance turnaround times. A reliable provider should have access to a solid parts inventory of their own, and boast robust relationships with its suppliers.
The providers with established supply chains and closer OEM relationships tend to be well equipped to handle complex repairs or unexpected (e.g. AOG) issues requiring specialized parts or tooling.
Arrange a Jet MRO Shop Visit (& What to Look Out For…)
Whenever possible, visit the maintenance provider’s facility prior to the start of any work, since a physical inspection will give you insights into their operation, cleanliness, and organization.
A well-organized environment usually reflects a company’s commitment to high standards. While on-site, check the flow of aircraft movements and repair and how much work is actually being done. For example, a maintenance shop with many airplanes but little wrench turning is a sure sign of trouble and mismanagement.
Ask about third shift work and how much overtime labor is available. Is there a ratio of workers per aircraft?
How to Determine the True Value of Aircraft Maintenance
Price is a key factor in selecting a maintenance provider, but the reality is that aircraft maintenance is costly. As such, you should seek to evaluate pricing transparency and ‘value’, as opposed to seeking out the lowest quote.
Ask a prospective provider for detailed quotes that break down labor, parts, and shop fees. Some companies and aircraft manufacturers may offer fixed-price maintenance programs or hourly maintenance cost programs that make budgeting more predictable for those to whom they appeal.
And don’t forget to inquire about discounts for long-term contracts or multi-service packages. For example, if you committed to a multi-year maintenance plan, or bundled services into a single maintenance slot, are there any significant savings to be had?
Downtime is a critical concern. A maintenance provider’s ability to meet deadlines and minimize turnaround is essential for upcoming scheduling within the flight department, securing supplemental lift where it’s needed, and maintaining operational efficiency.
Thus, a strong commitment to completing work within the agreed timeframes and deadlines is a key facet to choosing the right maintenance provider to support your aircraft.
But don’t limit this principle to scheduled maintenance only. Ask about the maintenance provider’s procedures for handling AOG situations. For example, does the provider have a team focused on AOG, ready to respond quickly to a need remotely if it arises unexpectedly? Which regions are covered by the AOG team?
A responsive AOG support team must have technicians who can travel to your location (or any region you frequently fly to) and quickly respond to unexpected grounding or post-maintenance issues.
Aircraft Maintenance Quality Control Measures
Your chosen provider should offer a dedicated account manager who takes ownership of your project and can quickly address questions and concerns, while providing consistent updates on work progress, issues, and timelines, helping prevent last-minute surprises. The account manager should also act to ensure paperwork is completed and presented in a timely and organized manner, and correctly indexed.
And after the maintenance work-scope is complete, it is important to have a thorough post-maintenance inspection and test flights if necessary. High-quality maintenance providers will conduct detailed inspections and tests to confirm that all systems are operational and the repairs were correctly performed.
These are where they also look for any damage that may have been caused, such as scratches, and prompt corrective action can be taken as a matter of quality control.
Ultimately, your Director of Maintenance should be provided with plenty of opportunity to review all sign-offs and ensure that they are acceptable and correct, and these records should be available for upload to your electronic record keeper as well as in paper form prior to the aircraft’s output from the facility.
Ultimately, there’s far more to choosing the ideal aircraft maintenance provider than meets the eye, and selecting a partner to provide for your Flight Department’s maintenance needs is a complex matter with many considerations.
With the ultimate goal of every Flight Department being to have the aircraft ready and available to fly when the owner needs it, each operation will have unique considerations to factor into their own maintenance provider selection process.
The above paragraphs contain several generic pointers, but it’s important to ask yourself what some of the unique factors could be for your own operation when it comes to determining the true value of a maintenance provider.
Original article published on avbuyer.com
