Analysis of aircraft maintenance processes and cost

Abstract

The life cycle of an aircraft consists of design, production, operation and decommissioning phases. For an airline the main focus is on the maintenance process during the operation phase. This paper presents a case study of an airline facing a challenge of increasing maintenance cost. The objective is to understand factors that drive increase in cost. Maintenance cost, flight hours, flight cycles, dispatch reliability and pilot reports were analyzed to find out the maintenance cost drivers. The study identified that the aircraft which dominated the maintenance costs had the highest flight hours, and the lowest dispatch reliability in the fleet.