For years, the aviation industry has warned of mechanic shortages and spare-parts delays. These problems are usually framed as issues of capacity and turnaround time. But there’s another side to the story that is now impossible to ignore: scarcity is driving up the cost of maintenance itself.
As fleets grow and older aircraft remain in service longer, the squeeze on labor and materials is pushing wages, parts prices, and shop-visit bills higher. The result is the beginning of a new inflationary cycle in maintenance, one that airlines and lessors cannot escape.
Labor Scarcity Becomes Wage Pressure
The supply of licensed mechanics has not kept pace with demand. According to the 2025 ATEC/Oliver Wyman Pipeline Report, the FAA issued just over 9,000 new mechanic certificates in 2024—a near-record total. Yet that isn’t enough to offset retirements and rising utilization. Airlines are already short more than 5,300 certificated mechanics, roughly 10% of commercial aviation’s needs.
When demand runs ahead of supply, wages move up. Average salaries for U.S. A&P mechanics are now above $76,000 per year, and employers are adding signing bonuses, retention incentives, and premium overtime rates to attract talent. The gap is reinforced by examiner shortages: only 254 Designated Mechanic Examiners were active in 2024, a number far too low to keep testing capacity in line with enrollment.
The education side is just as constrained. Faculty salaries at AMTS programs trail industry pay by as much as $15,000–20,000, making it difficult to hire instructors. This means that even when schools have waitlists, they cannot expand to meet demand. The outcome is predictable—mechanics who are already certified hold greater bargaining power, and wages rise faster than inflation.
Parts Scarcity Adds a Premium
While labor tightness is one side of the cost story, the parts market is the other. AJW Group and AAR Corp. both report that turnaround times are stretched by shortages ranging from adhesives to critical engine components.
Used serviceable material (USM), long the cost-saving fallback when OEM lead times lengthen, is also in short supply. Airlines have been extending the lives of their fleets, which means fewer aircraft are being parted out. The result is a tighter USM market where prices have risen sharply—by 15–20% for certain narrowbody engine components since 2022.
Operators increasingly face a choice between waiting for OEM lead times, which now stretch nine to ten months in some categories, or paying a premium for USM when it is available. Either way, the bill is higher. MRO providers are responding by holding larger inventories and investing in AI-driven forecasting tools, but these steps only help manage delays—they do not lower costs.
Demand “Super Cycle” Shifts Pricing Power
Behind both labor and parts inflation is a simple fact: demand isn’t slowing down. North America’s commercial fleet is expected to grow 13% over the next decade, while higher utilization rates mean more checks and shop visits for existing aircraft. Analysts are calling this an MRO “super cycle.”
Normally, rising demand would be balanced by new supply. But with the mechanic pipeline constrained and parts availability tight, supply cannot keep up. That gives MRO providers more pricing power than they have had in years. Hourly labor rates are edging upward, and airlines are finding they have less leverage at the negotiating table. As one maintenance executive admitted, “It’s not about finding the lowest bid anymore—it’s about finding anyone who has a slot.”
Higher Costs Flow Into Airlines and Lessors
For airlines, these cost pressures go straight into CASK (cost per available seat kilometer). Older aircraft that were kept in service longer after the pandemic are especially exposed, since they require more extensive checks and heavier parts consumption.
Lessors also feel the strain. Maintenance reserves must rise to cover higher shop-visit costs, and lease negotiations are more complex when redelivery expenses are climbing. Shop visits that once cost $5 million are now closer to $6.5–7 million for CFM56 and V2500 engines. Widebody overhauls for GE90s and Trent 700s are running 20–30% higher than five years ago.
The economics ripple outward: more expensive maintenance raises the lifetime cost of aircraft ownership, which in turn influences fleet planning, lease terms, and even residual values.
FAA Disruptions Slow Relief Efforts
Congress attempted to address workforce shortages in the 2024 FAA reauthorization bill, mandating two new pathways:
- A military competency test to speed the transition of veterans into civilian A&P roles.
- A high school-to-certificate track allowing students to sit for general knowledge exams before enrolling in AMTS programs.
Both ideas could have expanded the supply of mechanics. But the FAA’s termination of advisory committees earlier this year has stalled implementation. The Airman Certification System working group that was supposed to guide the process no longer exists, and re-staffing won’t be complete until late 2025 at the earliest.
Until these pathways are in place, the pipeline will remain tighter than it needs to be—ensuring that labor scarcity, and the costs that come with it, will persist.
The Numbers Behind Inflation
| Category | 2019 | 2024 | 2025 Projection | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. A&P Mechanic Salary (U.S.) | $66,000 | $76,000 | $78–80,000 | Rising 3–5% annually |
| CFM56/V2500 Shop Visit | $4.5–5M | $6–6.5M | $6.5–7M | Up 25% since 2019 |
| GE90/Trent 700 Shop Visit | $8–9M | $10–11M | $11–12M | Up 20–30% |
| USM Pricing Index | 100 | 118 | 122 | 15–20% rise since 2022 |
| Certificated Mechanic Shortfall | ~3,000 | ~5,300 | >5,000 | Deficit persists |
The End of Cheap Maintenance
For two decades, airlines benefited from an abundance of trained mechanics, plentiful USM, and global supply chains that kept costs competitive. That era is over. The combination of workforce bottlenecks, supply shortages, and accelerating demand has created an inflationary cycle in MRO.
Even if FAA reforms succeed and supply chains gradually improve, maintenance costs are unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels. Providers now have both the pricing power and the market justification to hold rates higher. Airlines and lessors will need to build that reality into their economics: the age of cheap maintenance is behind us.
For other maintenance related stories, see our coverage of GE’s growth ambitions.
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