Two-Thirds of Aviation Maintenance Professionals Expect Parts Supply Environment to Worsen, Survey Finds

The 2026 General Aviation Parts Survey, conducted by TBX using customers of aviation parts platform Airworthy, found that two-thirds of respondents expect the parts supply environment to worsen, while just 15% believe it will improve. The survey gathered responses from 345 aviation maintenance professionals: 77% represented general aviation maintenance shops, 18% came from flight schools, and 11% from business aviation MRO operations. Sixty-three percent said their primary customer type was owner-flown private aircraft.

Asked about the current parts supply environment, 22% said it was worsening significantly, 44% said it was worsening slightly, 19% said conditions were staying the same, and 15% said it was improving. Rising costs and supply chain pressures were cited as the biggest challenges by 65% of respondents. Pricing, lead times, and part availability were named as the biggest issues with suppliers, alongside relative satisfaction with shipping speed and technical support. Nearly 90% reported OEM-related problems causing aircraft service delays at least monthly, with 37% seeing delays weekly and 9% daily.

The survey pointed to OEM consolidation, discontinued production runs, and a stretched maintenance workforce as the main causes of market constraints. Exhaust system parts were the most commonly broken components at 37%, followed by avionics at 34% and engine components at 33%. PMA parts outperformed OEM parts on availability and cost according to respondents, and 65% said they choose between OEM and PMA parts based on price and availability, not inherent preference. Authorized or independent distributors were the most common parts source, followed by salvage and teardown operations, then OEMs directly. Two answers tied at 33% for what could have the greatest positive impact: easier access to illustrated parts catalogs, part numbers, and technical data; and greater PMA availability for hard-to-find parts.

John McLaughlin, Airworthy CEO, said maintenance shops are spending too much time searching for parts, finding part numbers, waiting on backorders, and sourcing alternatives, and that as the GA fleet ages, improving parts availability, expanding access to technical data, and giving maintainers more options will be critical to keeping aircraft flying. Separately, ATI Jet/Jetvia is currently suing Pratt & Whitney Canada over alleged failure to provide support as part of an engine program, and a similar lawsuit by Flexjet, Inc. against Honeywell was settled in December, with Flexjet receiving over $1 billion in cash and services.

The survey results describe a maintenance segment where confidence in the supply chain is deteriorating faster than any single shortage can explain: OEM consolidation and discontinued production runs are structural, and a stretched workforce compounds both. When almost nine in ten shops report monthly service delays tied to OEM issues, the bottleneck is no longer episodic — it shapes routine scheduling.

This is also why PMA parts are gaining ground on economics, not loyalty. Sixty-five percent of respondents pick between OEM and PMA options on price and availability, which means the aftermarket parts channel now competes directly with OEM supply on operational grounds, and distributors and salvage operators are absorbing demand that OEMs cannot fill fast enough.

The legal track running alongside the survey shows how far this tension can escalate: Flexjet's dispute with Honeywell ended in a settlement worth over $1 billion in cash and services, and ATI Jet/Jetvia's active suit against Pratt & Whitney Canada raises the same support question in a different engine program. How that case resolves, and whether more operators pursue similar claims, will indicate whether contractual disputes become a standard lever operators use against OEMs over support commitments.