The combined 2020 MRO market for commercial, military, business aviation and civil helicopters should be valued at $184.3 billion, according to the Aviation Week Network 2020 Fleet & MRO Forecasts. The commercial and military MRO segments alone represent $165.8 billion. However, the forecasts call for commercial aircraft to generate 91.2 million flight hours and military aircraft to generate only 9.9 million, so the cost per flight hour for military aircraft is much higher.

Expect field maintenance to generate 49% of all military MRO expenditures, followed by components, airframes and engines.

• Commercial and Military MRO Will dominate demand in 2020
• Composition of MRO demand varies widely across sectors

This is very different than the mix for commercial aircraft, where the MRO forecast calls for engine maintenance to generate 43% of MRO demand, followed by line maintenance, components, modifications and airframe maintenance.

One thing that the commercial, military and civil helicopter MRO demand forecasts have in common is geography: The top MRO generators for all three will be North America, then Europe, followed by the Asia-Pacific region.

For business aviation, however, the top three regions are North America, Europe and Latin America. Asia-Pacific MRO demand for this segment in 2020 will be less than half of that for Latin America.

For each of the forecasts, the aircraft expected to generate the most MRO demand in 2020 will be the Boeing 737-800 (commercial), Lockheed Martin F-35 (military), Eurocopter H125/H130 (helicopter) and Bombardier GlobalExpress (business).