Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO)

Feature Roadmap
1

What?

Aircraft need to undergo certain checks at given intervals, typically based on flight hours and/or cycles. The checks range from smaller ones that take a few hours or days all the way to a full overhaul (D check) that takes an aircraft out of operation for months (in reality, probably several days in-game).

At the same time, aircraft are constantly checked and maintained by means of so-called “line checks”. Work that does require technicians, but not for the aircraft to be moved to a hangar.

Either type of maintenance requires bases equipped to take them out, ranging from line-check equipment and staff at an aircraft’s base all the way to hangars for heavy checks at a dedicated maintenance base.

Why?

The current maintenance system of AirlineSim is completely artificial, with no resemblance to how it works in the real-world at all.

The new system fixes this and at the same time offers more depth and many options for future extensions:

  • When an aircraft has had it’s last major check starts to play a rule in the choice of (second-hand) aircraft.
  • Certifications and the availability of spare parts might influence the decision whether or not to introduce a new type to the fleet.
  • Spare part management, especially for engines, might be an interesting extension to the above.
  • The presence (in terms of staff, spare parts, maintenance facilities) of different aircraft manufacturers might differ across the globe, making some manufacturers more viable in one part of the world than others.

When?

This is a large feature and might be split into several smaller ones.

It depends on Auto-Ops / Aircraft Pools.

2

As someone who works in aircraft maintenance, I would really like to see this implemented, even at a simple level. A major drawback of Airlinesim is, in my mind, the lack of barriers to linear, unrestricted growth. We’ve all seen airlines grow to massive (and larger than life) proportions without having to factor in how this affects their fleet beyond a mere percentage bump in MX costs. In the real world, there are significant limiting factors such as the number and quality of MRO facilities, supply chain constraints for older aircraft, and increased MX on said aircraft that create an “upper bounds” on fleet size. Implementing this feature into the game would create more room for new players on the server while also creating new considerations and challenges for mid-to-late game airlines.

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