Easy availability and quality of spare parts is critical

Crucial to keeping flight arrival and departure times on schedule and achieving overall fleet efficiency is the way the airline’s MRO division maintains the airline’s used/refurbished and spare parts inventory, utilising predictive maintenance to replace parts before they fail.

Availability is critical – if the spare part is located in a storage facility at the other end of the airport, it will cause a delay; if the spare part isn’t on site, it will cause an AOG.

The technician needs to source the spare part quickly, so the inventory must be well maintained, the storage facilities strategically located, and the supply chain quick to replenish the parts without excessive stockpiling.

Building strong relationships with the supply chain is important, as are integrated supply chain technologies to enhance responsiveness and reliability.

Quality is also critical. Using certified parts, preferably sourced from the OEM, should ensure the aircraft is running optimally.

Not only does using certified parts ensure compliance with safety standards, but also OEM warranty.

For example, a non-critical, uncertified part could potentially cause damage to a critical part that costs 100 times more to replace, and there is a good chance the warranty will be invalidated by the use of an uncertified part.

All eyes on global and local conditions – and the future

Global fleet utilisation is hard to achieve, but sustaining it is almost mission impossible.

So many global conditions can affect whether your flights depart and arrive on time: from unexpected weather and atmospheric conditions to epidemics, regional regulations and no-fly zones caused by conflicts – to name just a handful.

And then there are local conditions to consider, which can be even more disruptive. Bad weather conditions at the airport could adversely affect all flights, as could strike action or the isolated actions of passengers.

To stay ahead of the turbulence, airlines need to see into the immediate future, the near future and even further afield.

For the immediate future, predictive maintenance should enable parts to be replaced before they fail, and real-time monitoring systems can preempt issues and optimise operations.

In the near future, airlines need to keep abreast of evolving aviation regulations, as well as local and global governance, so they are not caught by surprise and are in a good position to quickly become compliant.

And then, even further afield, airlines need to strategise about how they are going to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Aircraft won’t just need to be fuel efficient, they’ll need to be clean, using hydrogen or Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) to power hydrogen-electric engines – or a combination of them all.

Green jet fuel: Promise or challenge for aviation's future?

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Under pressure: Finding the sweet spot of successful global fleet utilisation