Introduction
Before the year 2001, many airline companies in the United States performed the larger part of their maintenance activities by themselves. However, in a bid to cut costs, many airlines started outsourcing maintenance activities. In fact, outsourcing has become so popular such that whenever passengers board a commercial flight in the modern day, there is a 50% probability that the aircraft that they are on has its maintenance performed not by FAA approved mechanics that have been employed by the airplane, but rather by outside individuals from the many contract repair companies or stations that exist (Ghobrial, 2005). Statistics ...