Indeed, better data, its dissemination and analysis are probably preconditions to Boeing and other OEMs playing a stronger role in maintenance. In prior, less-digital days, often only airlines knew enough about the big jets to optimize maintenance. Better data and its dissemination are expanding the MRO choices as well as the competition.

Increasingly, aircraft-specific data could be the crucial question for airlines, which need maintenance options that are both efficient and competitive. Centralizing maintenance through outsourcing provides efficiency, since expensive equipment is not lying idle in airline hangars. OEM design knowledge can no doubt enable smarter maintenance decisions.

But for these advantages to benefit airlines, they must be offered by several companies, not monopolized by just one airframe OEM. And that means all the data, OEM, airline and shop, must somehow be shared among maintenance stakeholders. How to accomplish that sharing will remain a huge challenge as the maintenance landscape is reshaped.