Jets MRO says it was founded on a simple premise: Fix the mechanic turnover issue in the aircraft maintenance industry. While the industry has been grappling with mechanic shortages in recent years, turnover has emerged as a significant driver of increased costs and delays in aircraft maintenance timelines. Founder and CEO Suresh Narayanan feels like the aircraft maintenance industry is not addressing this problem and not listening to the mechanic employee population enough.
Prior to opening, the leadership of Jets MRO had significant experience running aircraft operations for multiple fleets. This is where the continuing issue of mechanic turnover was a significant factor to aircraft timelines and cost in maintenance.
Narayanan stated, “When I was an aircraft operator, we dug into why our aircraft were coming out of maintenance so late and over budget. We found out it was not due to the mechanic shortage, but an industry issue with retaining mechanics within these maintenance businesses. The most eye-opening part was learning that mechanics turnover rates were not being discussed, which ranged from 30-70%!”
This mechanic turnover is a significant blame for late timelines and increased costs. When an experienced mechanic within a maintenance business leaves an organization, a newer mechanic has to take their spot. Well, that new mechanic takes longer for the same technical work tasks. Thus, leading to more hours billed to the customer, and the overall project being late when you compound the issue.
Jets MRO looks to curve the turnover issue down and they did this by creating a business from the point of view of the mechanics that represent their team. Jets MRO survey’s mechanics to really understand why these were leaving businesses. The feedback was resounding.
Engaged leadership, culture, benefits, and schedule representing most of the factor’s driving mechanics to look for another business to work for. So, Jets MRO created a maintenance business to address those things.
They offer free family benefits for all full-time employees. Part of the business is carved out to belong to the employees as profit sharing. Leadership reports financials every month to all employees to increase transparency and visibility to how the business is going. There is a formal process facilitating honest feedback and communication between all team members to avoid any issues and stay in front of how this business should grow from the point of view of its team.
So far while most businesses struggle with recruiting, Jets MRO has been able to recruit an amazing team operating seven-days a week. CEO Narayanan states “While most maintenance businesses label recruiting as a main struggle, it is the least of our worries. I feel like our story and purpose really resonate in the mechanic population and it shows with our very robust recruiting pipeline of very experienced mechanics waiting to join our team. Our biggest challenge is sharing our mission and letting the industry know we are a new maintenance business with a different take on how we approach the business.”