Why understanding it can save buyers and sellers time and money
An important aspect to consider when buying a private jet is the aircraft’s maintenance schedule. The maintenance schedule is the frequency of airframe and engine inspections that are completed at specific calendar or hourly intervals. Knowing if a large inspection is coming due or has just been completed on an aircraft can have large repercussions on your ownership experience. Your broker and maintenance rep should discuss these inspections with you and guide you through what to look at in your aircraft search.
Main implications to the Maintenance Schedule
Cost – known costs (fixed rate of the scheduled inspections) and unknown costs (parts and labour for repairing defects discovered during those scheduled inspections)
Time – length of inspection. Aircraft downtime is a hidden cost of aircraft maintenance that is often overlooked. While some downtime is inevitable just as maintenance is compulsory, some of the largest inspections can take periods of months. The costs of this downtime in extra charter, crew salaries and other items is significant and materially impacts your costs for the year. While most maintenance inputs are a few weeks in duration, some can take up to 16 weeks or more to complete.
It is most desirable to find an aircraft that has just finished a major inspection. There is peace of mind knowing the aircraft was recently looked at thoroughly, and that (hopefully) the major defects have already been rectified, as well as saving you time and money during your ownership by not having to perform the inspection. If you are unable to get a major inspection included in your sale, you can still get an in depth look inside the aircraft during a Pre-Purchase Inspection (PPI).
As a seller, a basic guideline regarding the Maintenance Schedule and a transaction is if a major inspection with a multi-year interval is coming due in the next year, a buyer will want it completed as their PPI. If a seller refuses to do an upcoming major inspection, many buyers will simply wait, and the owner will have to perform the inspection anyway when it comes due. Any inspection between 1 to 2 years away will most likely not be included in the sale, but a buyer will want to have a thorough PPI so they can mitigate some costs and issues that may arise in the next inspection. Anything over 2 years is far enough out to not be a factor to consider.
From an owner’s perspective, the best time to sell your aircraft is when you are about to put your aircraft into a major inspection or when it has just come out of one. Buyers love the idea of an aircraft fresh out of an inspection, and rightly so. However, keep in mind that if you have just finished a large inspection, buyers will often want to look at items that may not have been covered during that input. No large inspection reviews all areas of the aircraft so be prepared that even after a large inspection, buyers will likely still want to do some element of A Pre-Purchase Inspection.
As an example of what to look for in the Maintenance Schedule, certain inspections require specific facilities or tools. For example, the Gulfstream’s MAUS Inspection requires specific tools and machinery that can only be completed in 3 facilities worldwide that are all located in the USA. For buyers living outside the USA, if this inspection is coming due for the aircraft soon, you need to account for the cost and time to fly the aircraft to one of these USA facilities and the downtime it will require once there. If you just bought an aircraft, the last thing you want to do is put it in maintenance and not use it for months.
Maintenance (and defects) are a fact of life in aircraft ownership. There is no such thing as a risk-free aircraft so be prepared that any ownership experience will involve maintenance, including potentially expensive rectifications. But with proper advice and due diligence in the search and purchase of an aircraft, you can significantly reduce your exposure for your ownership experience.
Examples of Large Inspections
Heavy Jets
- Bombardier Global series: 120 Month Inspection
- Gulfstreams: 96 Month and 144 Month Inspections
- Dassault Falcons: 2C Inspection
Small to Mid-size Jets
- Bombardier Learjets: D Check
- Cessna Citations: ID 10 Inspection
- Embraer Phenom series: 10 Year Inspection and Landing Gear Overhaul