The Role of Maintenance in Managing Aircraft Asset Value
Discussion by Steve Bentley CEO of Sofema Group www.sassofia.com
Forthcoming Training Notification - Managing Aircraft Lease Agreements and Maintenance Reserves - 3 Days - Bangkok, Thailand 9 am to 5 pm from November 25th to November 27th, 2019.
Introduction
An aircraft’s Maintenance Planning Data (MPD) document provides planning information necessary for each operator to develop a customized scheduled maintenance program. However, the choice of an operator’s maintenance program is predicated on many variables, key among them is cost, technical knowledge & skill, and operational profile.
In general, operators have the option of choosing between a generic scheduled maintenance program and or a fully-fledged customized maintenance program.
A generic maintenance program is a program reflecting all applicable scheduled maintenance tasks valid for the particular fleet of the operator, based upon the latest revision of the MPD.
Let’s be clear about a few home truths
“Over” maintaining an aircraft does not add to its value, conversely - “Under” maintaining an aircraft can create significant costs if the deterioration impacts the lease return conditions.
Without a doubt, the quality of aircraft maintenance is an essential element of the need to manage the asset value of the aircraft. Aircraft Maintenance is intended to keep the aircraft in a state which will or has enabled a certificate of release to service to be issued.
Does the Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation (CAMO) have full access and knowledge of the contents of the Leasing Agreement?
Without such knowledge, it will be very challenging - maybe even not possible to effectively re-deliver an aircraft in the most cost-effective way.
Maintenance Basics
The reasons for carrying out maintenance are:
a) To Ensure Aircraft Safety
b) To Ensure Operational Availability & Integrity
c) To Maximise the value of the asset (airframe, engines, and components) - of prime importance to Lessor and ultimately should be important to the Lessee
Maintenance typically consists of a mixture of Preventive and Corrective tasks including:
▪ Scheduled or Preventive work to anticipate and prevent failures
▪ Unscheduled Work - Defect Rectification & Repairs
In general terms, for preventive work to be worthwhile, two conditions should be met:
a) The item must be restored to its original reliability after maintenance action
b) The cost of maintenance action must be less than the failure it is intended to prevent
During operation in service, there will be a continuing opportunity presented to implement Service Bulletins - whether this should happen or not happen depends on a number of factors.
a) Return on Investment
b) Remaining Period of Lease
c) Contractual Obligations
Sofema Aviation Service www.sassofia.com and SofemaOnline www.sofemaonline.com offer regulatory and vocation training both online and within the classroom environment. For details or enquiries please email office@sassofia.com or online@sassofia.com
