How to Reduce Aircraft Maintenance Costs

Aircraft maintenance is a process that is inherent in aircraft operation and its associated costs are all a normal part of this routine. But even if the airplane is in the hands of the aircraft or airline operator, reducing aircraft maintenance cost can still be considered as a joint responsibility of the operator, the manufacturer and the supplier of parts and materials.

While they don’t own the aircraft, manufacturers and suppliers become partly responsible for the maintenance of the aircraft because they play a big role in keeping the airplane maintainable. The job of the operator as far as maintaining the aircraft is concerned is to provide a maintenance program that meets the technical and operational requirements of the aircraft.

Operators make sure that the cost of maintaining airplanes remains manageable by assessing critical factors which include:

• Company policies

• Maintenance practices

• Management decisions

• Existing maintenance facilities

• Skill levels of aircraft mechanics and technicians

Aside from these factors, there are also three major elements that comprise an airplane’s maintenance cost. These are direct labor, indirect labor, and materials.

In order to reduce aircraft maintenance costs, aircraft operators can do the following:

1. Optimize Routine Maintenance

Routine maintenance checks are carried out by competent technicians and engineers. This includes brief daily inspections to insure the aircraft’s airworthiness. Optimizing routine maintenance can help to avoid aircraft downtimes by anticipating breakdowns. This allows technicians to replace components before any breakdown can happen.

2. Reduce Non-Routine Maintenance

Non-routine maintenance is any maintenance work that is not performed at pre-determined intervals. It is actually not a part of the aircraft owner’s maintenance program. As such, it is highly possible that the maintenance team might have missed the fault. Occurrences like this must be avoided in order to prevent aircraft downtime.

3. Improve the Reliability of Aircraft Components

The aerospace industry is a highly regulated one. All aircraft operators are required to comply with government and industry standards to avoid getting grounded. But it is not enough to be just compliant to government standards. As an operator, your company must establish high standards especially with aerospace parts distribution to ensure airworthiness and avoid non/routine maintenance stops.

These tips for reducing maintenance costs can help your company incur lesser costs and improve revenues. These will surely work for your company.