Questions From our Booth at NBAA09

We enjoyed NBAA09 in Orlando this year. We had a chance to meet with present and future clients in an environment that was more relaxed than previous years. The attendance was down a bit but the quality of contacts and depth of discussions was really enjoyable and enlightening.

Here is one of the questions we were asked:

1. How can you save my organization money on my maintenance expenses?

In my experience and in the opinion of most of the clients and other experts that I asked, about half of all maintenance bills have errors, overcharges or inefficiencies. These are complex machines, there are lots of decisions, lots of people and money involved, and it all adds up, and not necessarily in the favor of the guy or woman owning the plane.

We save owners money and aggravation in three primary ways: Sourcing and negotiating the quotes for the maintenance job, heading off cost increases both in work performed and delays, and finally approving and disapproving items all throughout the process.

Most of the people in the “business end” of business aviation (owners and managers) don’t have the experience or expertise of maintenance technicians, and yet the estimates and invoices that they need to make decisions about are often written in very technical language. Many business managers and even pilots may not be familiar enough with the maintenance processes to make the best decisions about which expenses are mandatory and which are optional. They don’t know what a reasonable charge is for some complex repairs and maintenance procedures. They may not be fully comfortable making decisions about the pros and cons of handling maintenance tasks one way over another. While most aviation maintenance and repair technicians are scrupulously honest, they aren’t intimate with your company’s financial situation and strategic objectives.

One of our clients came up with the idea for the MyTechnican service. CrowleyAMA originally started by helping aircraft owners figure out who should really manage their planes and auditing their monthly management statements, which is now a great part of our business. (I say “really” because it seemed all managers said they could manage any given plane as well as any other, which, especially if charter were involved, simply wasn’t the case.)

On a very simplified level our clients connected with the value of MyTechnician because everyone has taken their car in for repair. There’s an element of not liking the unknown and wanting to make sure you get a fair shake for your dollar and understanding what you get for your dollar. We just came in and essentially placed an expert mechanic standing next to them from the minute they dropped the car off to the time they are at the counter paying the bill. Imagine if you had an actual mechanic standing next to you the next time the repair shop slides an estimate across the counter at you and says, “Here’s what it’ll cost.” That’s what we provide, but for planes. Owners and their pilots want to know they’re getting treated fairly, understand what’s happening to their aircraft and get a good deal.