Aircraft maintenance: keep your airline flying

Before you start

• Sign in to the correct airline with permission to send aircraft to maintenance.
• Identify the aircraft registration, its current airport, and its next scheduled departure.
• Keep enough company cash for the check, the hangar charge, and any public-slot rental.
• Allow time for the full check and any repositioning needed to reach a suitable workshop.

If you are still setting up, read Start your passenger airline. For timetable planning, see Create your first passenger schedule.

1. Open the aircraft and read its maintenance counters

Go to Airline → Airline Operations → Fleet and open the aircraft you want to inspect. Confirm its registration before taking any action.

1. Check the aircraft's status and current location.
2. Find the A-Check, C-Check, and D-Check cards. Review the remaining time and each card's Check Interval, Check Downtime, and Check Cost.
3. Use Next MX as a starting point: it identifies the check with the least remaining time. Still review all three counters.
4. Compare the remaining allowance with your planned flying and the time needed to get the aircraft to a workshop.

Use the values shown for your aircraft. Check intervals, downtime, and prices depend on the aircraft class; one aircraft's figures are not a reliable estimate for another.

2. Choose the appropriate check

The portal offers A, C, and D checks. Their counter coverage is:

• A-Check: resets the A counter.
• C-Check: resets the A and C counters.
• D-Check: resets the A, C, and D counters.

Choose based on the checks coming due, the quoted cost, and the downtime you can accommodate. If a C or D check is approaching, compare that option before paying for a separate A check. Do not choose the largest check automatically.

3. Find a workshop at the aircraft's current airport

Open Airline → Airline Operations → Facilities. Maintenance requires an eligible airport and one of these options at the aircraft's current location:

• Your airline's active workshop with a free maintenance slot.
• An available public MX slot offered by another airline for the required check duration.

A hub or a home-base assignment alone is not enough. The workshop must exist and be active, and there must be capacity for the aircraft.

1. Find the airport where the aircraft is currently parked.
2. Check whether your facility has an MX Workshop and available slots.
3. If it has no workshop, review Buy Workshop, including the quoted price, slot count, and build time.
4. If the workshop is full, consider waiting for a slot, using a suitable public slot, or reviewing Expand Workshop.

Construction is not instant. New workshop slots become available only when construction finishes. Check the facility's status rather than assuming a purchase immediately provides maintenance capacity.

4. Reposition the aircraft if necessary

If no suitable slot is available at the current airport, plan how the aircraft will reach a workshop before its maintenance allowance runs out.

1. Choose an airport that can handle the aircraft and has appropriate workshop capacity.
2. Review a suitable flight or the aircraft's Transfer option, if available. Check its quoted cost, arrival time, and any restrictions.
3. Complete the movement and confirm the aircraft's current location has changed to the workshop airport.
4. Check workshop availability again before authorising maintenance.

Changing an aircraft's home base does not physically move it. Do not start planning maintenance at another airport until the aircraft has actually arrived there.

5. Authorise maintenance

On the aircraft page, choose Maintenance to open Send to MX.

1. Confirm the aircraft registration and read the workshop-availability message.
2. Select the A, C, or D check you intend to perform. Review its remaining allowance, downtime, and price.
3. If the dialog offers public slots, choose one and inspect the owner, slot number, hourly rate, and total cost. Availability may differ between checks because their durations differ.
4. Confirm that your company has enough cash and that the downtime fits your operating plan.
5. Select Send to MX and wait for the Maintenance authorised confirmation.
6. Confirm the aircraft now shows In Maintenance or workshop status, with its due time or MX remaining countdown.

The aircraft must be parked or scheduled, ungrounded, and not already in maintenance. You cannot send an aircraft that is still flying or transferring into the workshop.

6. Leave enough time around scheduled flights

Before authorising a check, review the aircraft's commitments in Schedules and the Rotation Board. Being allowed to start maintenance on a scheduled aircraft does not mean the downtime fits its next departure.

1. Find the last arrival before maintenance and the next planned departure.
2. Allow for repositioning, the full quoted check downtime, and ground preparation before flying again.
3. Make any necessary operating-plan changes through the schedule tools. Do not assume that sending an aircraft to MX reschedules its flights.
4. For future templates, leave suitable gaps near a workshop airport rather than filling every minute with flights.

Published templates are locked from builder edits. Follow the schedule tutorial when planning a revised template, including its publishing lead time and aircraft assignments. A new draft is not an immediate fix for today's departure.

7. Confirm the aircraft is ready again

1. Wait for the displayed maintenance due time, then refresh the aircraft page.
2. Confirm the aircraft is no longer in workshop or maintenance status. A countdown reaching zero on an old browser page is not proof that its recorded status has changed.
3. Review the relevant A/C/D counters, current airport, and any remaining grounding or availability restrictions.
4. Check the next flight's departure airport and time before returning the aircraft to your operating plan.
5. Review Finances if you need to confirm the maintenance and slot charges.

If the due time has passed but the aircraft still shows In Maintenance, refresh and recheck its record. If it remains stuck, report the registration, selected check, and displayed finish time. Do not pay for another check to try to clear the status.

Common maintenance problems

The Maintenance button is disabled

Check its explanation, your permissions, aircraft status, grounding, maintenance configuration, and workshop availability. Aircraft leased out or wet-leased by a renter can have additional restrictions.

I own a hub, but maintenance is unavailable

A hub needs the workshop add-on. Confirm the workshop is active, construction is finished, and a slot is free at the aircraft's current airport.

All slots are occupied

Wait for capacity, review an available public slot at the same airport, or plan a suitable alternative location. A workshop expansion takes time and does not immediately free an occupied slot.

No public slot is available for the selected check

Availability depends on the required duration. Recheck the selected check and current airport, or arrange another suitable workshop option.

The aircraft is grounded

The maintenance action currently requires an ungrounded aircraft. Review why it is grounded. If it is an intentional manual grounding that can be released, an authorised user can use Re-Activate before requesting maintenance. Do not treat this as permission to ignore unresolved operating restrictions.

The aircraft is wet-leased

A wet-lease renter cannot send the aircraft to maintenance; the owner handles it. For other lease arrangements, read the aircraft's maintenance coverage and quoted charges.

There is not enough company cash

Budget for the complete quote, including the hangar charge and any public-slot rental, rather than only the check price.

The counters or maintenance defaults are missing

Open Fleet → Tools → Register Missing MX Aircraft to create missing maintenance records, then reopen the aircraft and check its counters. Follow Missing MX Records for the full repair and verification steps. If information is still missing, report the registration and displayed message so the configuration can be checked.

Your maintenance checklist

• You have reviewed all three check counters and the selected check's downtime.
• The aircraft is at an eligible airport with an active, available workshop slot.
• Construction is complete; a hub or home-base assignment has not been mistaken for workshop access.
• The company can cover the full cost.
• The maintenance window fits around flights, repositioning, and ground time.
• The request is confirmed and the due time is recorded.
• Before flying again, you have refreshed the page and checked the actual aircraft status, location, and counters.