Airbus forecast in July that $1.8 trillion will be spent on commercial aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) activities over the next 20 years as part of a projected $3 trillion spend on global aftermarket services. In its first Global Services Forecast, which was released at the Farnborough Air Show, the airframe manufacturer said that on an annual basis, MRO spending will grow from $53 billion to $132 billion over the forecast period, which works out to average annual growth of 4.6 percent.
MRO is a big and potentially lucrative business. It’s also a complex endeavor that takes training, skill and coordination to accomplish effectively. And, most importantly, it is critical to the safety of flight.
Many of the same issues we discuss regularly in terms of flight operations also apply to the maintenance and engineering realm. Fatigue risk management, fitness for duty, communications, crew resource management, safety culture and effective oversight, to name a few, all …
