Outsourcing Maintenance

Outsourcing is a growing trend. Employees in all industries are seeing their employers outsourcing more and more work -- some to U.S. contractors, some to foreign countries. Aircraft maintenance outsourcing has been in the news again recently. As we reported last week, United mechanics handed out pamphlets nationwide urging the company not to outsource its Mileage Plus and maintenance units. In another news story yesterday, it was reported that AMR Corporation (parent company of American Airlines) intends to sell its American Eagle regional airline next year. AMR shareholders have been pressuring American to sell the regional airline and other assets, moves they believe could raise money and raise AMR's stock price. Other assets that could be on the chopping block in the future might include the airline's maintenance unit and its repair and overhaul operations. When looking at outsourcing, airlines are looking at one thing -- money. They are looking at how to save the most money in order to create the best value for their shareholders. They want to concentrate on their core business while outsourcing other non-core business units. To them, they see the operations side of their companies as their core business. They fly people from point A to point B. That is what they do. The rest of the stuff like reward programs and maintenance are seen as non-core business units. But what are the long-term effects of outsourcing? By outsourcing maintenance, airlines experience a loss of aircraft knowledge and technical expertise. They are depending on other companies for the maintenance and safe operation of their airplanes. The public has been in an uproar recently over toys. But if you look at the criticism of what went wrong with outsourcing toy manufacturing, you could easily replace "toy manufacturing" with "outsourced maintenance." Buzz words are, pardon the pun, flying around -- words like "sub-standard practices," "improper procedures" and "inadequate government oversight" come to mind. But while the public is in an angry uproar over sub-standard toys, there is barely a whisper of anger when it comes to outsourcing airline maintenance. It's not because they aren't aware of the practice -- the mainstream media continues to report on the topic. Yet, the flying public does not respond. They remain indifferent to the issue. Could it be because the flying public is addicted to low ticket prices? Like toys, airline tickets have become a commodity, with customers making purchasing decisions based on the lowest ticket price, not even considering for a moment the quality of the airline's maintenance. The flying public has the power to influence the airlines. If they are concerned about maintenance, they could choose not to fly on airlines that outsource their maintenance. The airlines would then have to respond or go out of business. But that is not the case... ...yet. Thanks for reading, Joe Escobar