The Need for Aging Engines is on the Rise
As fuel prices continue to lower companies across the globe are seeing airlines, as well as private owners, sinking their money into taking care of their planes and using them for long stretches of time. This shift means that facilities who repair and maintain aircraft engines are seeing companies ask for older models for their aging planes. This change means that companies are scrambling to find older engine models, meaning that the market has quickly gone from being flooded with aviation parts to almost completely barren.
When you investigate why this change may be, you start to notice the influx of money that many companies are experiencing right now. Organizations that used to be floundering are now making back the money they sink into their planes because fuel prices have started to regulate themselves. It is now not uncommon to find fuel for less than $100 dollars a barrel, something that used to be a pipe dream. This change in fuel prices allows people to hold onto aircraft for longer, resulting in MRO facilities, being bombarded with work orders for older engine models. Something that can help almost everyone, across the board.
Even though the market is no longer saturated with products, MRO’s and Engine Dealers, are finding new life in outdated and unwanted parts. Many aerospace companies have stated that they can easily strip older, unpopular engine models to sell off for parts that can be used on planes and engines that are currently having a moment on the market.
What we don’t know though, is how long this surge will last? Even if this trend dies down in the next month or so we can still look back and see the impact one small change, fuel prices, in the market can make on the entirety of the aircraft industry.