The one thing that every aircraft owner has to deal with is maintenance. Maintaining your aircraft is something to be taken seriously and thoughtfully. Where you go for maintenance can make a significant difference both to your cost of ownership as well as the reliability of your aircraft. Not every maintenance facility in the world can work on your aircraft, nor would you want them to. The main different types of facilities include Factory Owned, Factory Authorized, and Non-Factory Authorized. The best way to choose the right maintenance facility for your aircraft is to be informed. Let’s take a look at the difference between these facilities and what it means to you.
Factory Owned: A maintenance facility owned by the aircraft Manufacturer. In general, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) facilities have a wide scope of their aircraft types they can work on as the OEM wants to bring as many aircraft as they can to their own facilities. The maintenance here can almost always be counted against parts programs and warranties.
Factory Authorized: A maintenance facility that has been reviewed and approved by an OEM. It is basically the OEM saying “Your maintenance meets our standards. We authorize you to do work under our name and you can claim against warranties and parts programs.”
There is not really a difference between these two types of facilities except that one is owned by the OEM, but both can perform maintenance that can be counted against parts programs and warranties. Some people like the idea of all their jet’s maintenance being done by the manufacturer, but a Factory Owned maintenance centre does not mean the maintenance was completed to a higher degree than another facility would have carried out.
Other facilities will fall under Non-Factory Authorized facilities. Because a maintenance facility isn’t authorized by an OEM does not, in any way, mean it is a less capable facility. However, when using these facilities you need to make sure that when they work on your aircraft, they can claim against any remaining warranty (if you are still under one) or that they can claim against your parts program (if you have one). A lot of Non-Factory Authorized facilities can do these things, but it’s best to check before work is started to know the financial risk upfront. If they can’t claim against your warranty or parts program, you will have to cover those expenses. There are some really great Non-Factory Authorized facilities around the world that do maintenance at an equivalent, and sometimes higher, standard than the Factory owned facilities. Many times, the reason a facility is not Factory Authorized is because they have not gone through the timely and costly expense of the OEM’s vetting process.
The Takeaway: As with most things, cheapest is not always the best. Sometimes paying a bit more for your maintenance can save you money in the long run. It’s best to price around and look at a few options of where to take your aircraft. You may want to take it to the Factory owned or Factory Authorized facility so you know that what should be covered by your program will be covered. Or you want to expand your options and consider other facilities that may be more competitively priced. Sometimes a non-factory authorized facility will have less expensive labour costs because they know they have to compete with the perception of owners preferring factory owned or authorized facilities.
One of the downsides with Factory Owned and Factory Authorized facilities is their location. There are often very few of these in a given region and the repositioning flight and distance can make a large difference to their convenience for you as an owner. As such, a Non-Factory Authorized facility may be a much more convenient option due to location and ease of access. Also, keep in mind that not all Factory Owned facilities have the government approvals to complete very heavy maintenance or specialist component repairs. Because it is Factory owned does not mean it is a full service facility.
Jets are a complicated system of working parts that need and require constant maintenance, wherever you decide to have your maintenance carried out. We advise our customers to get informed quotes from several different types of facilities before committing to have inspections or repairs done. Your operator should be able to give you more information on maintenance facility options for you.
Blogs are written from real world experience by Colibri Aircraft’s individuals. If you have any questions or comments about the topic of this blog, please feel free to contact our team at enquiries@colibriaircraft.com
