As part of our forward look into the megatrends affecting the aviation industry in 2024, we’re turning our focus to maintenance, repair and overhaul. For a strategic overview, we sat down with senior leaders at the Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA), an MRO trade body, and the Independent Aircraft Modifier Alliance (IAMA), an organisation of MRO operators.
When it comes to current big issues, ARSA vice president of operations Brett Levanto tells us, “International cooperation — or apparent lack thereof — is first and foremost. ARSA has been smack dab in the middle of a kerfuffle between the United States and the European Union over interpretation of the implementation procedures associated with the two jurisdictions’ bilateral agreement. For decades, the industry has been pursuing harmonisation in global aviation safety standards, which remains a laudable goal but has become increasingly problematic as harmony in regulatory text has supplanted equivalent safety outcomes as the end goal. This impacts even those individuals performing only domestic work, because regulators are distracted with issues of international oversight.”
Elsewhere on the domestic side, but with international effects, politics continues to affect the industry, especially within the US. The longterm lack of permanent Administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration (the FAA), while now resolved, combines with the Congressional dramatics over the reauthorisation of the US regulator to show a perennial governance problem that needs longterm change.
In this context, Levanto says, a key risk is “the loss of core regulatory knowledge and focus. International issues and overreliance on paperwork are symptoms of having lost track of the overarching goal for regulators and industry: system safety. From safety management systems to certificate overhaul, attention has shifted considerably to process to the detriment of performance-based rulemaking and oversight.”
The ongoing struggle to find, retain and ensure qualifications of personnel is still a major issue
IAMA managing director Nina Schulz calls the continuing personnel issue within the industry a “struggle for capacities, which is also affecting the original equipment manufacturers. The huge demand in the modification and MRO market leads to an enormous hunger for manpower. Shortages affect all areas, from touch labor to engineering, and include all support functions — and of course material provisions due to still unstable supply chains.”
This, Schulz tells us, “results in some challenges for the independent providers but also in some opportunities. There is high demand for modification and for MRO — the full order books of our members show this high demand. Meanwhile, innovation, mainly in the area of sustainability, requires processes to assess the benefits and educate the industry on them.”
Even with this work, material supply shortages and the availability of qualified and experienced personnel — where they need to be to undertake the MRO operations required — remains a major challenge.
Schulz highlights sustainability, too, as a key topic, but notes that the industry needs to focus on “real innovation versus green washing — discussions around sustainability in aviation centers mainly around SAF and electric propulsion. However, every currently and in future operated aircraft provides many challenges once the retrofits are required. And these challenges start with production and continue until phase-out and dismantling.”
Developing new tools, processes and equipment to lower the environmental impact of aircraft disposal and recycling is a substantial focus, even while developing aircraft (and their subassemblies and subsystems) with a circular mindset to make this more efficient and effective in the future.
“There certainly is ever-growing attention on new technologies like sustainable aviation fuel, unmanned aircraft systems, urban air mobility — the list goes on,” Levanto says. “These markets provide chances for businesses to grow and our exciting industry to attract new talent. Of course, referring back — as I do often — to the underlying regulatory and personnel challenges we face, those issues could hamper growth in any direction, whether traditional lines of work or new opportunities.”
Levanto points to digital recordkeeping as a key example of the friction of modernisation and the need to ensure that new tools are firmly placed within existing regulatory structures.
“As an example, look at handwringing over electronic recordkeeping,” Levanto suggests. “The FAA wants repair stations to have an operations specification — part of its air agency certificate — to allow for use of electronic recordkeeping systems. The rules don’t support such a requirement, they are agnostic about media and focus on content. Still, regulators get into a frenzy about anything ‘new’ at the expense of utilising the existing system.”
Indeed, if the repair station rules require records to be kept for two years after return to service, and for those records to be able to be provided to the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board, there is a certain logic that the actual format or medium — if adequately robust and reliable — is perhaps less vital than ensuring the records are indeed kept.
Looking to the future, the near term offers substantial opportunities
“It is very likely that the currently high demand will at some point slow down again — it is a temporary wave pushed by the COVID backlog,” Schulz says. “All stakeholders are wise if they are already preparing for the likely next cycle. Stable relationships, continuous delivery of high quality and commitment will pay off in quieter times.”
As airlines seek to invest in the post-lockdown world, airframers’ order books are already full, with programme delays and ongoing issues with some already-flying aircraft.
MRO providers with the flexibility and capacity to provide solutions to airlines, particularly around airframe mid- and late-life upgrades — perhaps where an airline was not expecting to run through another check cycle with a particular aircraft, but now has no choice given a programme delay — are in high demand.
This is particularly the case at the premium end of the market, where passenger expectations of new seats and cabin environments have never been higher.
“For our members as independent providers this is a really interesting time. These companies have the flexibility and power to provide efficient and smart solutions for airline customers whereas the OEMs themselves struggle with their capacities. Independent solutions help to satisfy the demands of the aftermarket,” Schulz says. “Ultimately also the race for skilled and motivated personnel will be decided in favour of those companies that offer attractive positions and working environments. Aviation suffered badly during COVID, and many people shifted away to other industries. Now is the time to implement real cultural changes in order to regain the attractiveness that aviation has always offered.”
Published 25 January 2024
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