Aircraft Maintenance 4.0 in an era of disruptions

Digital transformation in manufacturing is having a distinct impact on a variety of business models, including aircraft maintenance. Airline operators are revamping their Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) activities with the use of integrated digital platforms and data mining to achieve greater operational efficiencies in parts usage, downtime, and service costs. The term Aircraft Maintenance 4.0 captures the leveraging of information to achieve greater operational agility and to reduce costs. Consolidating data obtained via wireless connectivity from diverse sources enables effective performance monitoring that can inform MRO operations. The severe restriction of flights worldwide due to the pandemic has disrupted the progress of Aircraft Maintenance 4.0 by altering flight routes and rendering most of the historical data obsolete. In this paper, certain aspects of the disruption that deal with airline network changes and their evolution during the pandemic are studied by using publicly available data of a commercial airline.