Global spending on aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul reached $104 billion in 2024, according to the International Air Transport Association's Maintenance Cost data eXchange executive report published in January 2026. That figure sits 11.7% above the 2019 level and marks consistent year-over-year growth since 2021.

The recovery followed a steep drop. Global MRO spend stood at $82 billion in 2019, fell to $50 billion in 2020, and then climbed to $62 billion in 2021, $79 billion in 2022 and $94 billion in 2023. The report cites Oliver Wyman for a 2034 forecast of $124 billion, which would be 33.4% above the 2019 level.

MRO has also taken a larger slice of airline budgets. The report puts maintenance at 11.5% of global airline expenses in 2024, up from 10% in 2019. As a share of global revenues, MRO spend was 10.8% in 2024, compared with 10% in 2019 and a peak of 13% in 2020 when revenues collapsed.

IATA attributes the durable demand to growing and aging fleets. The 2024 edition of the report draws on data from 28 airlines operating 2,703 aircraft, equal to about 8% of the global fleet, with a combined spend of $13.19 billion on direct maintenance and overhead. Average maintenance cost in that group was $1,522 per flight hour and $5.05 million per aircraft.

Source: IATA -- https://www.iata.org/contentassets/8437020db31a4717b70677d9b06b1a45/fy2024-mcx-report_public.pdf#page=19