The 2026 Cost Squeeze in Aircraft MROs

Reading the Super-Cycle from the Shop Floor Up An Industry Analysis for MRO‘s decision-makers.

‍

If you have been working in MRO for any length of time, 2026 will not feel like a brand-new chapter. It feels like the same chapter we have been reading since 2022, just with the volume turned up.

‍

This paper compresses the main cost forces into a single read, drawing on IATA, Oliver Wyman, Bain & Company, McKinsey, Boeing, the U.S. Bureau of labour Statistics, the Aviation Technician Education Council, and the specialist trade press. The picture is a market that is financially healthy at the top line but operationally stretched almost everywhere else: a market that rewards capacity, punishes inefficiency, and increasingly separates the digitally mature from everyone else.

‍

Download our Whitepaper now.