Rising costs, lack of widebody flights pose risks to recovery in aircraft maintenance market

The global aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) sector faces fresh challenges from rising labour costs and a weak recovery in the widebody market as shop visits begin to rebound after a severe pandemic-related slump. The MRO sector, worth an estimated $68.4b in 2021, according to consultancy Oliver Wyman, has been battered by retirements of older planes, which typically require more maintenance, and reduced flying hours for the rest of airlines’ fleets. That has led to less wear and tear on parts and given airlines with grounded planes the ability to conserve cash and postpone shop visits. Industry delegates at the Singapore Airshow said that the outlook was improving but that labour costs were rising. They said the recovery was lumpy and focused on specific areas where air travel was rebounding, such as narrowbody aircraft and dedicated freighters, with older passenger widebodies lagging well behind. “There is a general labour shortage and the only way to get labour back to work is higher rates,” said Kailash Krishnaswamy, senior vice president of aftermarket services at Spirit AeroSystems. “Inflation is definitely a challenge.” For his company, business has been solid in the Americas, where it services narrowbodies but less so in Belfast, where it had done a lot of work on Airbus A330 widebodies, many of which have been retired. “We are trying to pursue a lot more narrowbodies in Belfast that we used to not do in 2019,” Krishnaswamy said.<br/>