Skimping on maintenance?
Joe Sharkey writes that airlines’ outsourcing of maintenance work, in an effort to cut costs, maybe at least partly to blame for the recent rash of plane inspections by U.S. carriers. In Tuesday’s New York Times, Sharkey reports that use of so-called noncertificated maintenance sites around the world by airlines has grown. And while these outfits may well be adequate, they do not have FAA certification. The amount of airline maintenance spending in outsourced domestic and foreign facilities of all types rose from 37 percent in 1996 to 64 percent in 2006, according to the report. Sharkey rightly points out that U.S. carriers have a superb safety record, but the economic situation is forcing airlines to cut corners and he’s equally right to raise these concerns.
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