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Emerald Airlines CEO Keith Butler.
BELFAST, Northern Ireland—Emerald Airlines CEO Keith Butler sees escalating maintenance costs as a “fundamental challenge” to the regional airline business model.
“Addressing things like maintenance cost inflation is going to be critical,” Butler told delegates at the European Regions Airline Association (ERAA) general assembly in Belfast.
Butler said regional airlines are at a tipping point with the barrage of challenges they are facing, in addition to maintenance costs rising at two to three times the rate of inflation.
“Maintenance costs are becoming such a high percentage of the cost base, but more importantly are accelerating at a greater rate than a lot of the other costs,” he said. “That's something that is reaching a breaking point.”
Other ERAA airline delegates voiced similar issues. SAS Group VP for airline operations and external production Mikael Wangdahl is concerned about engine, landing gear and parts availability for regional fleets—especially out of production variants.
“You have to invest a lot in old equipment to get them to continue operating,” he said. “If you take a CRJ, where you had a green-time engine supply, today you have to invest $6 million in an engine overhaul for an aircraft that has no hull value.”
Wangdahl said ATR engine lead times for Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127s went from 90 days to 250-300 days. Engine maintenance concerns also delayed SAS’ decision to go ahead with Embraer E2s. SAS started looking at E2s in 2019 but only went ahead with the order in 2025.
One undisclosed airline is stockpiling all the spares it can find, just to protect its own fleet and operations. “You really have to be your own supply chain,” Wangdahl said.
KLM Cityhopper managing director Maarten Koopmans has also faced problems sourcing carbon brakes over recent weeks. “If I talk to my maintenance people, every day they are trying to find parts. Normally you would just order parts, right? Now it's a struggle day after day, and it's scattered around the portfolio,” he said.
Around the start of the Pratt & Whitney Canada powder metal crisis, Koopmans feared he might have to ground up to 12 of KLM Cityhopper’s 25 E195-E2s.
“In the end, we parked four, and we cocooned them completely in white plastic. It worked very well, by the way. We have unpacked all four of them, and the fourth is in maintenance now, but the other three are already flying again. So, I think we're out of the woods there,” Koopmans said. “Pratt & Whitney has improved the supply chain for their own maintenance a lot.”
KLM Cityhopper is keeping its Embraer E1s on longer, as back up aircraft. “We might even start taking some apart for the parts,” he said.
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