Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

Editor, AIN monthly magazine

Kerry Lynch

Aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) spending will remain dampened in 2021, remaining on par with 2020 at least through the first half of the year, industry analyst Brian Foley said. However, Foley, who heads his own industry consultancy, added the latter half of the year should see some improvement.

 


Business aviation MRO spending dropped roughly 15 to 25 percent in 2020, while the commercial sector experienced a 50 percent plunge, Foley estimated.

 


He pointed to a “tale of two aviation sectors” in 2020, where both private and commercial aviation suffered from the waves of cancellations and groundings but business aviation regained much more ground than the airlines. After the April-May timeframe in 2020, commercial flight activity remained off 60 to 70 percent from the previous year.

 


“Many of the planes parked were older and more maintenance-intensive, adding to the volume of MRO business. All of these factors conspired to further deflate commercial MRO opportunities,” Foley said.&nbsp; &nbsp;

 


For business aviation MROs, however, “life has been far more forgiving” as private travelers continued flying. Summer leisure travel returned activity to within 20 percent of normal flight activity, he noted.

 


And, as airlines parked their aircraft, “many business jet owners took the opportunity to fly their aircraft to MRO facilities to have any scheduled or preventive maintenance done,” he said.

 


As activity remains flat going into 2021, most MROs that have adapted to the reduced activity will survive, he said. “However, the shops that are highly leveraged or with depleted financial reserves will be systematically culled in the coming quarters.”

 


However, Foley did offer some optimism: “There’s hope that the second half of 2021 will help both sectors claw back more lost ground, with business jet flight activity rising to well within 10 percent of normal and airlines improving to ‘just’ 25 to 50 percent off of normal levels.”

Foley: 2021 MRO Biz To Remain on Par with 2020

Industry analyst does see some upside later in 2021, but expects MRO business to remain flat with 2020 levels for the time being.

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