IATA, IATP Unveil Joint Strategy To Ease Airline Supply Chain Challenges

ST. JULIAN’S, Malta—The International Airlines Technical Pool (IATP) and International Air Transport Association (IATA) are teaming up for the first time to tackle the airline industry’s mounting supply chain and maintenance pressures.

The alignment was revealed during the recent IATP conference in Malta held March 7-11, signaling a shift in how the industry trade bodies plan to navigate today’s highly constrained operating environment.

While speaking at the conference, IATP CEO Giorgio Pietra said global air traffic had surpassed the pre-2019 levels and aircraft utilization remained high. “Demand is strong, but the industry continues to face structural constraints and aircraft catalogues remain significant,” he said.

Pietra warned the industry’s recovery is being undermined by geopolitical instability and chronic shortages across engines, components and skilled labor. He noted that “extended turnaround times and material shortages are creating real operational exposure for airlines,” even as global traffic surpasses pre-pandemic levels. Airlines are keeping aircraft in service longer, he said, while the shortage of technicians “remains a major concern.”

This dynamic has pushed MRO demand to unprecedented levels. “Engine shop capacity constraints, extended turnaround times and material shortages are creating real operational exposure for airlines,” he said.

To combat these mounting hurdles, Pietra announced a pivotal step forward by bringing IATA directly into the fold. “IATA is here [at the conference] to explore possible synergies between our organizations, with the objective of delivering benefits to our common members,” Pietra said.

Stuart Fox, IATA’s director of flight and technical operations, said supply chain disruptions are costing the airline industry heavily. He estimated the impact reached $11.3 billion in 2025. Of that total, $4.2 billion is linked to higher fuel consumption from operating older aircraft longer than planned, $3.1 billion to additional maintenance costs, $2.6 billion to extra leasing costs and $1.4 billion to excess servicing.

To address this, Fox outlined IATA’s strategy to open up the aftermarket, expand capacity for alternative certified parts, improve parts forecasting and implement an accreditation scheme to prevent bogus parts from causing chaos in the market.

In 2024, the IATA board asked its technical teams to develop a plan to help airlines address growing supply chain pressures. IATA organized a workshop in April 2024 with around 35 airlines and OEMs to identify key priorities, followed by a second session in April 2025. The discussions highlighted several core challenges, including supply control, single-source suppliers and limited parts availability.

The outcome was a strategy paper endorsed by IATA’s board outlining short-, medium- and long-term measures to ease the pressure. Key proposals include opening the aftermarket to give airlines more maintenance sourcing options, expanding material capacity and increasing the use of alternative certified parts. IATA also hosted a workshop in Dublin in October 2025 to explore how the industry could safely introduce more alternative components into the supply chain.

“The industry also needs to do a better job forecasting parts demand,” Fox said. “In particular, parts manufacturers often do not know ahead of time what will be needed, which is causing an increasing backlog of spare parts in the system.”

With both organizations deeply entrenched in finding solutions, a united front appears to be the most viable path forward.