What Is the Importance of Maintenance for the Airlines Industry?

A robust aircraft maintenance program implementation is a very important activity for maintaining aviation-related assets. Aircraft Maintenance activity should never be neglected, ignored, or underestimated. Otherwise, it can lead to catastrophic results, and nobody wants that! Therefore, in this blog, we will understand the importance of maintenance and why it is significant for the airline industry. Let us begin!

Why Is Maintenance Important?

Maintenance is important in various ways such as:

- To keep assets in top condition.

- It assists organizations in maintaining their assets.

- To avoid sudden asset failure.

- For keeping employees safe.

- An unmaintained asset can lead to an interruption in production operations.

- Maintenance can increase asset life.

- Lack of maintenance can lead to early disposal of the asset.

- Maintenance can increase asset performance.

- Maintenance decreases downtime.

- Maintenance can save unnecessary expenses.

Why Is Maintenance Important for the Airline Industry?

Maintenance is important for the airline industry, including aircraft. Maintenance should be done regularly. Every function must work properly, especially during a flight, to ensure that every asset works effectively; maintenance is necessary.

Nobody would want that during a flight a flaw, error, or asset failure occurs. Aircraft need a check-up and inspection consistently. Even new aircraft are inspected before they are opened to patrons.

According to Statista,

“It is projected that the global aircraft maintenance market size in 2020 and 2030. In 2030, the global aircraft line maintenance market is expected to be sized at just under 20 billion U.S. dollars.”

Here Are a Few Important Reasons Why Maintenance Is Important for the Aviation Industry:

1. Safety for Everyone

This is the most obvious reason for airline maintenance. Aircraft are made of various parts and it is very complex. One small mistake can lead to disastrous results. Therefore, MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul/Operation) is crucial for the safety of humans and aircraft as well.

According to Statista, “Globally, the aircraft engine maintenance, repair, and overhaul markets are expected to reach 64.2 billion U.S. dollars by 2030.”

Every year lots of accidents occur due to lack of maintenance or mechanical asset failure. The aviation industry cannot bear these types of mistakes because accidents hurt the reputation of an organization. With good maintenance, accidents can be avoided and safety can be enhanced.

When you have the responsibility for a lot of people, then you have to make sure that everything is in order. You also need to ensure that passengers arrive at their destination safely.

2. Boosting Performance

When equipment, machines, & aircraft get maintenance regularly, their performance is stabilized. Holistic maintenance includes calibration management too. It means changing the old part and installing a new advanced part so that it can increase performance.

Ordinary upkeep will ensure that the airplane operates fine for the time it flies. There should be operational checks before each flight. This practice will ensure that no issue occurs before or after any trip.

A tool that keeps a record of aircraft maintenance can be helpful; it can ensure that the aircraft is dependable and it can enhance the maintenance process as well. Other than this, routine maintenance checks, detailed aircraft inspections, and identifying potential issues are types of activities that can be performed with the software.

3. Minimizing Maintenance Expenses

Maintenance expenses can be very expensive and it can impact the overall bottom line of an organization. In case a breakdown occurs, then you will have to pay a lot of money for aircraft maintenance. Moreover, to do damage control, you will deduct expenses from other areas.

When you have maintenance management software, you will not have to remember manually for maintenance as this software will remind you. It can minimize breakdown chances. As a result, maintenance expenses will be saved. Plus, its performance can be optimized with organized maintenance.

This software also provides MRO-related data through which expenses can be reduced.

4. Enhancing Aircraft Life

Aircraft maintenance can increase aircraft life. A comprehensive maintenance approach minimizes the upkeep time during an airplane's service life.

It gives an overview of processes needed to create a reliable airplane maintenance program, ensuring optimized performance & being beneficial for aircraft management.

To take effective preventative measures, aircraft should undergo different levels of inspection through an aircraft maintenance schedule.

Maintenance shall be done after inspecting the aircraft; then it should be decided if it needs condition-based monitoring or not. All these activities prolong asset life.

5. Reports

When maintenance work is done, then the report is generated for all work done. It includes all the details such as who has done the maintenance, how much time was consumed, what actions were taken, and how long it will work efficiently. All types of reports and data are stored in asset management software. This is very helpful in the long run.

Asset Management Reports can provide crucial data that can enable you to make a business decision based on concrete statistics numbers. It also allows you to keep track of which asset is working effectively and which does not.

Conclusion

Aircraft maintenance is a complex process and it needs a highly trained, qualified & experienced team to perform maintenance. However, humans have a limited memory; they won't remember what maintenance work was done on “airplane-112233” back in 2019. But, with asset management software, you can retrieve all maintenance details such as who did it, when it was done, and what was done! This software keeps the asset history track.

This software can play a crucial role in scheduling maintenance and managing work orders. Overall, this can save your expenses and you will see an improved bottom line with this software.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the various types of maintenance?‍

Maintenance can be divided into two categories:
1. Proactive Maintenance - In this maintenance strategy potential issues are found and removed before they become actual issues. Examples of proactive maintenance are preventive maintenance & predictive maintenance.
2. Reactive Maintenance - Reactive maintenance is used when issues have occurred now assets need to be brought back in running condition. An example of reactive maintenance is emergency maintenance.

How priority is decided on a work order?‍

Work order priority is decided according to the nature of the asset. If an asset is really important then its priority is high or if delivery needs to be done today then also priority will be high.

What are the major sectors involved in aircraft maintenance?‍

The market for the Aircraft MRO sector is typically divided into four major segments, which include Airframe heavy maintenance and modification, Engine Maintenance, Line Maintenance, and Component maintenance.

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