Airline Hangars Balanced Manpower Utilization: A Simulation Approach

Airlines on average spend 10%-15% of their total operating cost on aircraft maintenance. Most of the airlines conduct their light maintenance checks in-house. These light checks have a major impact on flight schedules, delay rates and cost. A chronic challenge with airlines is assigning light maintenance checks to the hangars while achieving a balanced utilization of the manpower. This study considers airline's daily flight schedule, manpower needed for each check, the availability of manpower and expertise at each hangar, capitalizes on flexibility of performing aircraft light maintenance checks among potential hangars aiming at balancing manpower utilization. The results are very encouraging compared with existing practices. The model not only identifies which maintenance checks to be performed at different hangars but provides recommendations in terms of increasing/decreasing manpower needs. An airline application reveals that the model can help airlines with their strategic manpower planning strategies to achieve a high and balanced utilization of their maintenance manpower.