Engine Light Repair Shop Evaluation for a Brazilian Airline

The maintenance cost of a commercial aircraft comprises airframe, components, and engines. The most expensive of them are engines, which may represent up to 60% of an aircraft cost, and therefore will have a significant impact on any airline finance. As a result, engine fleet maintenance management is crucial for any airline sustainability. Apart from heavy maintenance where life-limited parts are replaced and its performance restored, aircraft engines are often required to come off wing for light repair due to operational issues like foreign object damage, high oil consumption, and vibration issues. In other cases, even though being operational, engines are required to come off the wing and undertake repair processes to comply with lease return conditions. Although these light repairs may be simple and relatively short in time, they require the engines to be transported to dedicated repair shops impacting engine availability due to shop slots unavailability and the logistics. This drives airlines to have additional spare engines on its fleet, increasing its operating costs. This research is aimed at evaluating the pros and cons any Brazilian airline may have if it decides to have its engine shop for light repairs. Due to the complexity of the engine repair process, this research will be focused on a specific repair for a particular engine, which, if developed internally, may allow airlines to expand their light repair capability and, in the long term, improve engine availability.