Modern aircraft designs may be undermining aviation’s sustainability goals, according to a component leader at AFI KLM E&M who warns that newer components are increasingly difficult to repair. As airlines face growing pressure to reduce life cycle emissions and improve circularity across their fleets, some modern aircraft component designs may force replacement over repair, driving up costs and making those goals harder to achieve.
The aftermarket has increasingly embraced repair, reuse and life-extension strategies as part of broader sustainability efforts, with operators seeking to reduce the environmental impact associated with manufacturing new parts. However, according to Peter van Helden, senior vice president of component product at AFI KLM E&M, some recent design trends are moving in the opposite direction by limiting repair options and increasing reliance on replacement.
"OEM design choices increasingly prioritize performance and manufacturability over long-term repairability," van Helden tells Aviation Week.
Among the developments affecting repair capability are bonded assemblies replacing traditional bolted designs, integrated electronics modules, composite structures and highly protected avionics architectures.
According to van Helden, "adhesive-bonded components reduce weight but make disassembly and part-level refurbishment far more difficult, or even impossible." He also points to composite primary structures, where "OEM-defined allowable damage limits and proprietary layups restrict field repairs and often require factory-level intervention."
The growing integration of electronics is creating additional challenges for maintenance providers. Van Helden notes that line replaceable units increasingly combine multiple functions into a single assembly, meaning that individual failures can trigger replacement of an entire module rather than repair of a specific element. At the same time, integrated modular avionics architectures are becoming more dependent on software environments protected by intellectual property restrictions, reducing opportunities for independent repair development.
The concerns come at a time when sustainability is becoming a more crucial factor in maintenance decision-making. Van Helden says operators are increasingly pursuing life-extension strategies and are more willing to repair or overhaul components when doing so helps reduce the Scope 3 emissions associated with manufacturing new parts.
Airlines with environmental, social and governance commitments are also placing greater emphasis on repair pathways that demonstrate higher reuse rates and reduced waste generation. Meanwhile, growing demand for used serviceable material is being supported by fleet retirements and efforts to improve material circularity.
At the component level, van Helden asserts that sustainability and economics remain closely aligned. "Being able to repair means a lower price than buying a brand-new component,” he says. “Sustainability and economy are intrinsically linked. More sustainability induces more cost savings, then sustainability becomes a leverage for customers to induce pressure on prices.”
Despite growing demand for repair-based solutions, van Helden believes the market is seeing fewer opportunities to develop them. "The number of available repairs in the component maintenance manual are reduced, not developed, or only available to the OEM itself (even if not developed by the OEM)," he says. "Licenses are introduced to a limited number of MRO players. These licensed players are limited and restricted on the allowance of using alternative solutions or in repair development."
As van Helden notes, this dynamic is creating a disconnect between the industry's sustainability ambitions and the practical realities facing operators and independent maintenance providers. He suggests that some OEM repair networks have little economic incentive to pursue complex repair development when replacement parts remain readily available, potentially steering operators toward replacement rather than repair strategies. "This behavior effectively imposes a replacement strategy on operators and drives up costs for airlines," he adds.
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