As airlines begin to return more grounded aircraft to service, attention across the aerospace sector is increasingly turning to the economics of maintenance, repair and overhaul — and the role digital technology can play in improving them. Recent analysis reported by Reuters illustrates the scale of the opportunity. Across six large US airline operations, reported spending on engine labour, repairs and materials increased by around 68% between 2019 and 2025, while flying hours grew by approximately 10%. For Derby-based AddQual, those figures reinforce an important principle for the next generation of aerospace MRO: time has a cost at almost every stage of the repair process. From inspection and engineering assessment to measurement, validation and final approval, an engine component can pass through numerous technical and quality processes before returning to service. AddQual believes artificial intelligence, automation and connected digital systems can help compress those processes and create valuable additional capacity.
“Taking cost out of MRO is increasingly about taking time out of MRO,” said Ben Anderson, Managing Director of AddQual. “Every opportunity to make information available sooner, automate a repeatable activity or help an engineer reach a decision faster has the potential to improve the economics of the entire repair cycle.”
This is an area AddQual is addressing through the development of MiDAS, its digital platform designed to connect inspection, measurement and manufacturing information and make data more useful throughout the component lifecycle. Within an MRO environment, the potential extends well beyond digitising an existing process. Measurement information can be captured and structured digitally. Automated workflows can move information between stages. Digital records can support traceability. AI can increasingly assist with interpreting large datasets, identifying patterns and directing engineering attention towards the information that matters. The result is an opportunity to move from simply collecting inspection data towards using it to accelerate decisions.
“MRO facilities generate an enormous amount of valuable information,” Anderson said. “The opportunity is to connect that information so the right people can access the right evidence at the right point in the process. MiDAS is being developed around that principle — creating a digital thread that supports faster, evidence-based decision making.”
That becomes particularly significant as the complexity and value of engine repair continues to increase. Modern engines incorporate sophisticated materials, coatings and component geometries, while airlines and MRO providers are seeking to maximise component life and make effective repair-versus-replace decisions. The ability to assess component condition efficiently therefore has a direct relationship with both turnaround time and cost. Automation also offers manufacturers and MRO organisations another valuable commodity: engineering capacity.Automating elements of measurement, data processing, reporting and workflow can allow skilled engineers to spend more time on activities where their expertise creates the greatest value. Rather than viewing AI as a replacement for engineering judgement, AddQual sees its role as helping engineers reach informed decisions more efficiently.
“Engineering knowledge remains central to aerospace MRO,” Anderson added. “AI and automation give us an opportunity to amplify that knowledge. If technology can process information, organise evidence and highlight areas requiring attention, engineers have more capacity to focus on the decisions that genuinely require their experience.”
The cumulative impact can become significant. Minutes removed from individual activities can translate into hours across a repair route and potentially days when applied across complex workflows involving multiple components, departments and approval stages. For airlines, those gains ultimately connect with aircraft availability. For MRO providers, they can translate into greater throughput from existing facilities, equipment and specialist teams. With global engine fleets growing and shop capacity remaining highly valuable, AddQual believes the next phase of MRO productivity will increasingly come from connecting physical repair expertise with digital validation. AI, automated inspection, digital twins and platforms such as MiDAS can form part of an environment in which component information follows the repair rather than being recreated or manually transferred at each stage. Anderson believes that represents a significant opportunity for the UK aerospace supply chain.
“The industry already has exceptional engineering capability,” he said. “The next productivity gain comes from giving that capability better digital tools. When measurement, inspection, traceability and engineering decisions become connected, we can start removing elapsed time from the repair journey at scale.“
For MRO, time translates directly into capacity, availability and ultimately cost. If we can give engineers better information earlier and help components move through qualification and validation faster, digital technology becomes a very practical productivity tool.
As airlines work to manage the long-term cost of engine maintenance, the focus is therefore shifting towards more than increasing physical repair capacity. The emerging opportunity is to make every hour of that capacity work harder — using data, automation and AI to turn faster information into faster decisions, faster repairs and more aircraft back in the air.
