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What Could Military Operation Learn From The Commercial Airline Maintenance Activity?

The biggest difference between the two types of operations is undoubtedly cost, in the civil world everyone from the largest airlines to the single pilot/owner has to justify all outgoings. Historically, the military has not had to do this as defence budgets have been almost limitless. For example, the 2007 budget for the U.S. air force was 130 billion dollars and that only represented 29.5% of the total defence budget.

These costs cannot be compared directly between civil and military operations because the military does not ‘earn’ money or have to make a profit. However running costs, including maintenance, can be compared and it is in maintenance cost that the biggest differences occur.

A survey carried out in the 1970’s compared two civil aircraft, the Boeing 707 & Douglas DC.8, with two similar military transport aircraft, the Boeing C.135 and the Lockheed C.141. It found that whereas the average cost/flying hour for the civil jets was US$141 the military jets worked out at US$244. (Military man-hours were multiplied by the direct airline wage rate prevailing during the time period to obtain equivalent cost structures).

So why do military aircraft cost nearly twice as much to run than an equivalent civilian aircraft?

One reason is time aircraft spend on the ground, civil aircraft have to earn money so a typical jet liner can, for example have a seven hour flight followed by a one hour turnaround then fly the seven hours back. Not so for military aircraft, a study revealed that the F.14 ‘Tomcat’ naval fighter required, on average, 50 maintenance man hours for every one flying hour! Also military aircraft tend to have relatively short flights, so typically the ‘After Flight’ maintenance inspection will take longer to complete than the flight itself took.

This huge discrepancy is due in part to the amount of maintenance the aircraft receive. Civil aircraft maintenance checks are periodic checks that have to be done on all aircraft after a certain...