Equalized Maintenance for Widebody Aircraft

摘要

Aircraft are maintained according to an approved scheduled maintenance program which lists theapplicable tasks, the thresholds at which they are to start and the repeat intervals. Compliance ismandatory as per prevailing regulations. With the tasks having many different intervals, operatorsnormally bundle tasks which are to be accomplished together in the form of a maintenance check.The number of tasks and the volume of work required will vary between the maintenance checks.Block1 and equalized2 maintenance task packaging concepts have been identified. Blockpackaging involves accomplishing tasks when they fall due, resulting to high variations in manhoursacross the checks. Equalized maintenance attempts to achieve equalized package man-hoursthroughout a maintenance cycle and increase aircraft availability for operations. In addition tothese two methods, other methods of task packaging have been identified, which combine bothaspects of block and equalized maintenance (semi-equalized)3.Low Cost Carriers (LCC) operating narrow-body aircraft have been known to apply equalizedmaintenance across their fleet and realize improved aircraft availability, helping them to drivedown costs. It is thus important to evaluate the feasibility of implementing an equalizedmaintenance on a wide-body aircraft.Wide-body aircraft are mainly operated by network airlines having hub4-and-spoke5 operations,unlike the LCCs who operate point-to-point6 networks. Through review of available literature,analysis of a typical Maintenance Planning Document (MPD), review of maintenance planningactivities and review of typical network airline operations, results show that an equalized maintenance program can be implemented on a wide-body fleet, though the operator would haveto make procedural and structural changes. This would increase aircraft availability and reducedemand on facilities. However, there will be no significant differences in direct maintenance costsbetween block and equalized maintenance.