Aircraft maintenance training analysis: The case of Turkey

Timely and reliable maintenance activities ensure the safe and cost-effective operation of flight operations. The most critical factor in ensuring this is aircraft maintenance personnel (AMP). The necessity of training AMP as competent human resources, who perform maintenance activities in aircraft maintenance hangars, technical departments of airline organizations, and aircraft component maintenance organizations, reveals the importance of maintenance training. Aircraft maintenance training (AMT) in Turkey; It is given in secondary education institutions, universities, special training courses, training departments of airline organizations and maintenance organizations and flight training schools. The competency of educators is an important factor in improving the quality of education. Generally, the lesson plans of educational institutions and organizations that provide AMT are focused on theoretical education, and in addition, the importance of practical training gained in the real maintenance environment is emphasized in AMT. This can be achieved by ensuring that AMP have the necessary competencies, such as foreign languages, professional knowledge and maintenance experience, to maintenance operations. AMP who meet these requirements have an aircraft maintenance license and can perform maintenance operations. In the literature research, it has been observed that studies on aircraft maintenance training processes are limited. In this study, it was aimed to understand the importance of AMT, to produce solutions to the deficiencies in maintenance training and to increase its quality, and in this way, it contributed to the literature by supporting a survey conducted with 735 participants who worked and/or received training in aircraft maintenance.