Labor is only 20 to 30 percent of an engine shop visit, which means shopping on hourly rate barely moves the bill at all. Life-limited parts do: an LLP stack runs $1.5 to $4 million on its own. And an FAA repair station certificate is not a general permission. It is scoped by rating and class, so the question is not whether a shop is certificated but which rating covers your engine.
| Service | Typical |
|---|---|
| Commercial turbofan engine shop visitNational range | $1,500,000 to $5,000,000 per engine, per shop visit |
Ranges last checked September 2026. They come down automatically when they are due to be rechecked.
Every figure above comes from a named source we can link to, with the date we last checked it. We publish ranges rather than single prices because a range is what a provider will actually give you: the same job moves with what is being worked on, the materials, how hard it is to get at and how busy the trade is locally. Treat these as the order of magnitude to expect before you call, not as a quote.
The figures here are national. Where a source publishes figures state by state, the state pages carry that local figure instead of this one. We do not scale a national number by a multiplier of our own invention.
Every range carries a review date. When that date passes the number comes down until it is rechecked, rather than sitting here undated.
An FAA Part 145 repair station certificate authorizes a facility to maintain or alter aircraft and components, and it carries operations specifications and limitations as are necessary in the interest of safety. It is not a general license to work on anything.
The scoping is done by rating. Class ratings under section 145.59 cover airframe in four classes by construction and aircraft size; powerplant in three classes by engine horsepower and type; propeller in two classes; radio in three, being communication, navigation and radar; instrument in four, being mechanical, electrical, gyroscopic and electronic; and accessory in three, being mechanical, electrical and electronic. Limited ratings under section 145.61 are issued for specific aircraft makes and models, for nondestructive inspection, aircraft fabric work, landing gear, floats, rotor blades, emergency equipment and other specialized services.
So a shop holding a powerplant class 1 rating is not thereby authorized for a class 3 turbine. Asking which rating and class covers your engine is a different and much better question than asking whether they are FAA certificated, and the answer is independently checkable: the FAA publishes a Find a Repair Station lookup that shows a station's certificate and its ratings.
Under Part 145, a repair station certificate issued to a station located in the United States remains valid until it is surrendered, suspended or revoked. There is no expiration date on it.
A certificate for a station located outside the United States expires twelve months from issuance, renewable for up to twenty-four months on continued compliance. That is a real operational difference and it is worth knowing which kind of certificate you are looking at.
Labor is 20 to 30 percent of a shop visit. Parts and life-limited parts dominate everything else, and an LLP stack alone can run one and a half to four million dollars depending on how many cycles are left on it.
What that means practically is that the comparison between two MROs is not their hourly rate. It is how they define the workscope and what their parts sourcing policy is: new original equipment, PMA parts, or used serviceable material. Those three produce very different invoices for nominally the same job, and a quote that does not say which is being used is not really a quote.
Ask which rating and class on their certificate covers your specific engine or component, then verify it in the FAA's repair station lookup rather than taking it on trust.
Ask whether the certificate is a US one or a foreign one, and if foreign, when it expires.
Ask for the workscope in writing, and ask specifically what triggers moving from the quoted scope to a heavier one.
Ask about parts sourcing policy by name: new original equipment, PMA, or used serviceable material, and who decides.
Ask what the LLP position is on your engine before the visit, because that stack is the largest single variable in the bill.
Ask about turnaround and about spare engine lease, since a 45 to 140 day downtime is an operating cost that does not appear on the shop invoice at all.
Between about $1.5 million and $5 million and up per engine, depending on type. This figure is single-sourced to an aviation brokerage rather than an OEM or a government body, so treat it as one firm's benchmark.
Because labor is only 20 to 30 percent of the total. Parts and life-limited parts dominate, and an LLP stack alone runs $1.5 to $4 million depending on cycles remaining.
Workscope definition and parts sourcing policy. New original equipment, PMA parts and used serviceable material produce very different invoices for the same nominal job.
An authorization to maintain or alter aircraft and components, carrying operations specifications and limitations. It is not a general license: it is scoped by class and limited ratings.
Which rating and class covers your specific engine. A shop holding a powerplant class 1 rating is not authorized for a class 3 turbine, and the FAA publishes a repair station lookup so you can verify the answer yourself.
A certificate issued to a station located in the United States does not expire; it stays valid until surrendered, suspended or revoked. A certificate for a station outside the United States expires twelve months from issuance, renewable up to twenty-four months.
Between 45 and 140 days or more depending on engine type. That downtime is an operating cost that does not appear on the shop invoice, so factor in a spare engine lease.