Regional aircraft require multiple flights per day to maximise utilisation, so therefore will predominantly operate shorter flights. However, this puts greater stress on the airframe and necessitates closer monitoring for airworthiness. While some regional airlines handle their own maintenance, many others decide to outsource the activity to specialist suppliers.

In our cover feature, concerns are expressed about the common issues faced by MROs across regional jets, including workforce shortages, supply chain problems and a lack of spare parts leading to congested facilities and increased turnaround times.

However, to address these challenges, aircraft OEMs are expanding their component support and hourly rate programmes to retain existing customers and attract new ones. Examples include Embraer’s Pool Programme, de Havilland Canada’s Component Solutions Programme, and ATR’s Global Maintenance Agreement, while companies like Magnetic Group and Fokker Services Group are continuing to support regional aircraft fleets through services such as parking and storage maintenance, interior upgrades and modification projects.

New inspection technologies, digital MRO activities and the use of big data are gaining more attention to help lower costs and reduce turnaround times in regional aircraft MRO.

It will be interesting to see how regional airlines will continue to adapt to the changes of the MRO landscape and the impact this will have on aircraft utilisation, reductions in downtime and reduced costs.

If you’re not already aware, MRO Management’s Predictive Aircraft Maintenance (PAM) Conference is back this year, taking place from 27‐28 November in London.

We’ve expanded PAM into a two‐day event for 2023 so that the agenda can cover a broad range of topics including the legal, regulatory and sustainability issues related to predictive aircraft maintenance. You can find more event details on page 18, and we hope to see you there.

As always, I hope you enjoy reading this issue and please do get in touch to share comments or even send in details about your latest projects to be considered as features in our upcoming issues.