2 June 2020: What comes to your mind when you first think of an aircraft? Many of us will recall our first flight experience, the hollow feeling at the pit of the stomach during take-off, the enthusiasm of watching the clouds fly by and excitement of flying itself. Be it a passenger, a pilot or a maintenance engineer who worked hours behind the scene to make that flight airworthy.
There are no second thoughts on how difficult and cumbersome the job of maintenance of an aircraft is, to make sure all the nuts and bolts are in place to ensure a safe flight. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the aviation industry across the globe was facing a serious shortage of aircraft maintenance engineers, but the pandemic has thrown everything off balance, leaving many AMEs jobless. But that’s not exactly the case; if keeping the aircraft air worthy is a tough job then maintenance of a parked aircraft is more challenging than ever, because firstly no one ever thought that the perfectly capable airworthy aircraft will be shunted away for months before it takes flight again. The aviation industry was unprepared for a lot of unforeseen incidences when it came to maintaining huge number of parked fleet.
Etihad Engineering led the way by starting the most extensive maintenance program in Etihad history. They started with minor maintenance tasks, such as seat repairs and updates to Inflight Entertainment Systems, to bringing forward scheduled engine changes and modifications on several aircraft, eliminating the need to withdraw them from service when flights begin operating again.
The actual process goes something like this – the parked aircraft takes 4-6 employees working a 12-hour shift, which in total could take up to more than 18.000 man hours to securely park their whole fleet of aircraft. The process of preparations for long-term parking includes covering intake, exhaust points found in aircraft, pitot tubes, static ports, temperature and angle of attack sensors. At the same time the airline has to make sure to have protected its cabin product by covering up in-flight entertainment screens and systems. There is also a need of greasing and cleaning of landing gear and flight control systems, with further steps being preservation of aircraft fuel tanks and potable water systems. At last, the team makes sure to have every switch found in the cockpit turned off, batteries disconnected, control lever locks installed and window blinds blocking direct sunlight entering the cabin.
When the engineering team has successfully preserved an aircraft, the next step includes periodic checks performed at 7, 15 and 30-day intervals across the fleet. The team has to perform simple checks like walk around inspection or more complex ones which include startup of engines and bleed systems checks.
When then parked aircraft is thoroughly maintained, next come the revival of aircraft for service. The COVID-19 pandemic jerked the aviation industry to a halt, stopping all flight operations. But now comes the even bigger challenge of resuming the flight operations with the opening of international borders. It is again a time consuming and complex process. For e.g in case of Emirates, they dedicate 4-5 employees and at least 18-24 hours to return an aircraft into service. In an event where Emirates had to ground its whole fleet, the airline would need more than 30.000 man hours to reactivate its entire fleet. The process would include complex checks and tests to make sure that an aircraft is safe to operate and transport passengers.
