Maintenance Cost Growth in Aging Aircraft: Analysis of a New DHS Dataset

Abstract

This article finds that maintenance cost per flight hour increases by 8.0% as the average age of a fleet of aircraft increases by 1 year. Cost growth appears to decrease slightly as aircraft age, with an older group of aircraft showing maintenance cost per flight hour increasing by 7.6%. This is based on analysis of a new database from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations (CBP AMO). The article employs a Fixed Effect (FE) Least-Squares Dummy Variable (LSDV) regression model based on panel data from Fiscal Year 2015 (FY2015) to FY2020. The conclusion describes possible areas of additional research. This project’s findings may be interesting to the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and the Department of Defense (DoD). USCG aircraft conduct many similar missions to AMO’s aircraft (both organizations are part of the Department of Homeland Security [DHS]). DoD may find the analysis interesting for three reasons. First, while many of AMO’s approximately 200 aircraft are based on commercial designs, it includes military aircraft such as the UH-60, P-3, and MQ-9. Second, many of DHS’s acquisition and maintenance processes mirror DoD’s. Third, AMO’s data are a new dataset for examining aircraft maintenance costs already analyzed using DoD databases such as the Air Force Total Ownership Cost (AFTOC) and Naval Visibility and Management of Operating and Support Costs (VAMOSC) databases.