With specialist maintenance units closing and relatively slow demand growth predicted for North America, many airlines are starting to reassess their MRO set-ups
Consolidations, bankruptcies and facility closures are changing the North American maintenance, repair and overhaul landscape, affecting capacity and choices for where airlines can carry out maintenance.
Boeing's market outlook shows the most significant fleet growth in North America over the long term will be for single-aisle aircraft, which are expected to increase from 3,730 today to 6,090 by 2031. Twin-aisle orders in this region are set to increase only slightly, while large aircraft and regional deliveries will actually contract by the end of the forecast period.
Airframe maintenance in North America is expected to have a slow rate of growth overall compared with Europe and Asia, says aerospace consultants TeamSAI in its 2012-2022 global forecast. Average compound annual fleet growth in the region from 2012-17 is expected to be minus 0.3%, then (plus) 2.1% until 2022. Based on fleet needs, MRO spend will only increase by around $300 million in North America to about $16.4 billion at the end of the forecast period.
