The purchase of Mxi Technologies by IFS is still revealing some very interesting possibilities. IFS Aerospace and Defense Director Graham Grose notes that Mxi’s Maintenix has been a best-of-breed aviation maintenance management system, installed for nearly 20 years alongside the leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. So a mature gateway has been built to connect Maintenix to ERPs used by Maintenix clients.

The A330 should generate $6 billion in MRO spending in 2017, rising to nearly $9 billion in 2026 as the in-service fleet grows.

Sensor technology is enabling better monitoring of aircraft systems to support predictive MRO, but ground-based systems also need to evolve.