Drawing on two decades as an aircraft maintenance engineer (AME), Beth Christianos, founder and director of maintenance at Leading Edge Aerospace, has seen firsthand how different operators in the helicopter industry value and execute maintenance.
When she agreed to be a speaker at the 2025 Vertical MRO Conference in Irving, Texas, her goal was to challenge a long-standing industry mindset: that maintenance is simply a cost of doing business.
Instead, she argued, the value of an aircraft mechanic or technician should be viewed as an investment.
“How do you measure what didn’t happen?” she asked during her presentation.
On the operations side, value is easy to quantify. A pilot goes out and flies 2.6, logs it, the customer gets billed, and revenue is generated. The loop is clear and immediate.
Maintenance, by contrast, operates in the background. Its success is measured in absence: the failures that never occur, the downtime that never materializes, and the accidents that never happen.
“The truth is, we can’t measure what didn’t happen,” Christianos discussed. “But that doesn’t mean it has no value.”
Every pre-emptive bearing replacement or early detection of vibration or wear contributes to keeping an aircraft serviceable. These actions don’t show up as line items in the same way a completed flight does, Christianos explained, but their impact is significant.
A shift in perception
Historically, maintenance departments have been viewed as cost centers. Parts, overhauls, and labor all represent expenses on a balance sheet.
But that is an incomplete picture, Christianos argued.
“When you prevent a problem, you’re not just saving the cost of that repair,” she explained. “You’re also preserving availability, protecting high-value components, and enabling the aircraft to keep generating revenue.”
The shift from cost center to investment model hinges largely on perception, she said. And perception, in turn, depends on communication.
One example Christianos shared during her talk involved a helicopter owner facing a $13,000 gearbox repair. The owner felt the cost of the repair was too high and wanted to get a second opinion.
“By wanting to pull [the gearbox] from us and go get a second opinion, he was communicating that he didn’t necessarily see the value or trust our determination,” she shared.
“I decided to not take for granted that he understood what I was talking about; I went back to the basics. . . . I said, ‘I want to make sure that you understand this is the gearbox that keeps your main rotor blades turning.’ There was complete silence on the other end of the line. And then he said, ‘OK, yep, do whatever it takes. Make it happen.’
“That one sentence changed everything,” Christianos said. “It went from an expense he didn’t trust to something he fully understood the value of.”
Small efforts, big savings
Christianos also highlighted the immense value of preventative maintenance — as an investment, rather than a cost.
In financial terms: every dollar saved through preventive maintenance can equate to multiple dollars earned, once avoided downtime, lost revenue, and secondary damage are considered.
Main rotor blades, for example, represent one of the most expensive components on a helicopter at upwards of $100,000 per blade. But frequent attention and care, such as sanding and applying a sacrificial primer layer to address leading-edge erosion, can dramatically extend their lifespan.
In one of her case studies, Christianos shared how five to six hours of labor restored a blade to serviceable condition. But left unaddressed, the erosion could progress to the point where repairs cost upwards of $20,000 per blade.
“It’s a simple trade,” she noted. “A few hours of effort now, or a major expense later.”
The same principle applies across the aircraft. Tasks that may seem minor, like smoothing paint edges, replacing worn rubber components, or fully disassembling assemblies for proper inspection, all contribute to long-term cost control and reliability.
Beyond economics, Christianos emphasized the direct link between maintenance practices and safety outcomes.
Referencing recent accident investigation data, she noted an increasing number of fatal accidents are being traced back to maintenance-related issues. Preventive maintenance, in this context, is not just about saving money, but reducing risk.
“If we get it wrong, the consequences are high,” she said. “This isn’t just about machinery. It’s about people’s lives.”
Bridging the gap
After listening to Christianos’ presentation, a key takeaway is that the rotorcraft industry has an opportunity, and a responsibility, to better communicate the value of maintenance.
That can take many forms, whether simplifying technical explanations, providing visual before-and-after documentation, or even bringing non-maintenance personnel into the hangar to see the work firsthand.
For Christianos, the goal is to close the knowledge gap between those who maintain the aircraft and those who operate them or manage budgets.
“We’re not just mechanics,” she said. “We’re craftsmen maintaining some of the most advanced machines ever built.”
Reframing that work as an investment, rather than a cost, may be one of the most important steps operators can take to improve both their bottom line and their safety record.
