WHAT IS YOUR MAINTENANCE CONCEPT?

Bill de Decker
The answer should focus on quality work, on-time completions, cost management and
aircraft availability. Quality work and on-time completions are delivered by the vast
majority of maintenance organizations. And many manage their costs well. But what
about availability? Why is it important?
Simply put, if an aircraft is not available, it cannot fly. And if it cannot fly, it cannot earn
revenues or serve the needs of its owners. At the same time, most expenses, such as
finance or lease payments, insurance, hangar rent, full time staff salaries, etc. continue,
whether the aircraft is flying or not. Consider the following example for a typical small
jet, such as a Citation II or Beechjet 400A. The monthly fixed expenses, including
finance payments will be about $60,000. If the aircraft flies 80 hours that month, the
fixed cost per flight hour will be $750 per flight hour. But if the aircraft only flies 40
hours, the fixed costs per flight hour will double to $1500. In other words, the more the
aircraft flies, the lower the cost per hour.
Marketing can do a great job of selling flight time, but if the aircraft is not available
because it is in maintenance, the hours cannot be flown. And that is where an
organizations maintenance concept becomes important. Organizations that have
consistently high aircraft utilization focus their maintenance on maximizing aircraft
availability. Lets look at some ways you can make sure your maintenance operation is
focused on maximum availability.
The operating day
The first step is to determine the basic operating day during which 95% of all your
operation's flights are accomplished. For example, consider a typical regional charter
operator that caters to business travelers. Their operating day will probably be from about
7 AM to 8 PM, Monday to Friday. For a major airline, the operating day may be from 6
AM to 11 PM, 7 days per week. And for an express freight carrier (such as FedEx or
UPS), the operating day will be from 8 PM to 6 AM, 5 days per week. Whatever the
operating day may be, the key is to set up the maintenance program so that scheduled
maintenance and as much unscheduled maintenance as possible is accomplished outside
those hours. A major problem with this approach is that the time available for
maintenance is not only severely restricted, but it is also chopped up into 6, 8 or 10 hours
segments.

2001 Conklin & de Decker Associates, Inc.

PO Box 1142, Orleans, MA 02653. (508) 255-5975
www.conklindd.com

Progressive maintenance
There are very few inspections or scheduled maintenance events that can be
accomplished in their entirety during such a short time. And that is why most
manufacturers now provide progressive or continuous airworthiness maintenance
schedules. These maintenance schedules divide most scheduled maintenance into small
segments. Each segment can be done in the space of 6 to 8 hours, which allows time to
button the aircraft back up and return it to service. In this way, even large inspections
can be accomplished without ever taking the aircraft out of service during its normal
operating day. Of course, opening up and closing the aircraft every night adds to the total
maintenance time, but consider the advantages. For example, assume an aircraft with a
basic charter rate of $2,000 per flight hour and an annual utilization of 750 hours per year
(or about 15 hours per week). If an inspection that normally requires one week of down
time is accomplished on a progressive schedule that never takes the aircraft out of
revenue service, the additional revenue generated amounts to $30,000, which easily
offsets the extra maintenance time required for the progressive schedule.
As the manufacturers have taken up the challenge, the difference in labor hours required
between a conventional schedule and a progressive one is becoming smaller and smaller.
In addition, they are finding that almost all inspections and scheduled maintenance events
can be subdivided into segments that can be accomplished overnight. For example for the
current Falcon aircraft, only the C check cannot be done on a progressive schedule.
This means that a Falcon does not have to be taken out of service for scheduled
maintenance for periods of up to 6 years.
Some manufacturers unfortunately do not provide such maintenance schedules. If you are
a large operator, you can design your own and get the FAA to approve it. If youre a
small operator, that is hard to do. But there is nothing wrong with demanding that the
airframe manufacturer provide progressive maintenance schedules and making clear to
them that their failure to provide such schedules is having an impact on your ability to
make a bigger profit.
Planning
Even the time needed for heavy maintenance, aircraft refurbishment and other events that
require the aircraft be out of service for some time can be minimized by careful planning.
For example, the use of loaner or exchange components can significantly reduce the time
needed for engine and component overhauls. Often, different vendors with equally good
reputations will quote different times for the same job. Have one of your people stay with
the aircraft at the vendor during heavy maintenance or major refurbishment to make sure
your aircraft is getting the right priority and all questions are answered on the spot. The

2001 Conklin & de Decker Associates, Inc.

PO Box 1142, Orleans, MA 02653. (508) 255-5975
www.conklindd.com

key is to make, check and double check your plans and schedules while the aircraft is still
in service. Give the vendor(s) and your own people lots of opportunity for comments,
inputs and suggested changes. But once the aircraft is out of service, stick to the plan.
Experience shows that the work will be accomplished faster, which means more
availability for the aircraft to earn its keep. And as a bonus, the cost of the maintenance
or refurbishment is usually less.
The payoff
Focusing on aircraft availability requires significant changes in the way many
maintenance operations are set up. It takes time, requires training and not every employee
in the maintenance department will like it. But a look at two real examples shows that the
benefits are very significant.

A corporate operator of five medium and long range jet aircraft made the decision
some years ago to put the entire fleet on a progressive maintenance schedule. This
change increased availability of the aircraft in the fleet by about 26 weeks a year,
which is the equivalent of half an aircraft. Given that the average acquisition cost per
aircraft in this operators fleet is $16 million, the increased availability was equivalent
to a saving of $8 million.

Surveys done by the Helicopter Association International show that year after year,
commercial operators with the higher annual utilization per aircraft are more
profitable than the ones with lower annual utilization.

In other words including availability in the maintenance concept for your operation really
does pay!
AMT Magazine 01/2001

2001 Conklin & de Decker Associates, Inc.

PO Box 1142, Orleans, MA 02653. (508) 255-5975
www.conklindd.com