What is the future of manufacturer independent jet engine maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) services?
Background:
These days, Rolls-Royce is not any more in the business of selling engines, but selling thrust. The engines send telemetry data to four centers, the biggest one in Derby, in Great Britain, where every engine is under surveillance. An inspection can be scheduled at or spare parts can be directed to the right destination even before the pilots or the airline know that one of their engines has a problem.

By now, 80% of Rolls-Royce engines are sold at a loss which is recouped by a hourly fee paid under the TotalCare (.pdf!) program, and that center in Derby is monitoring maybe 4000 of them at the same time. Rolls-Royce has accumulated a treasure of engine operations data, which enables it to consult airlines on best practices. This makes it very hard for a third party to steal maintenance business from Rolls-Royce. All maintenance cost is covered by the TotalCare fee which now accounts for more than half of Rolls-Royce's revenue.

Other engine manufacturers have begun to copy this approach, and both Airbus and Boeing now offer similar programs for airframe surveillance and maintenance to their customers.

I wonder how Air France KLM can get at the data from the engines. My impression is that Rolls-Royce is in a different position, and third parties cannot compete on an equal basis. Airlines can rent out their shop capacity to others, but the specific business model of Rolls-Royce is directly coupled to them being the manufacturer of those engines and owner of the data it creates.