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An aging fleet meets a shrinking parts supply For many maintenance shops, sometimes the highest cost isn't a part. It's the hours spent trying to procure one. Maintenance professionals report spending significant amounts of time searching for parts rather than installing them, a challenge highlighted in Airworthy.com's latest survey. Airworthy.com released its 2026 State of General Aviation Parts Report on Aug. 23, based on feedback from mechanics, directors of maintenance, shop owners and maintenance professionals. The average certified GA piston aircraft is now 53 years old, according to the report. Maintenance shops are increasingly having to support aircraft that were designed decades before today's digital supply chain systems existed. As fleets age, parts inventories shrink, suppliers disappear, production runs end and documentation becomes harder to access. These factors increase maintenance complexity even though the aircraft themselves have nothing mechanically wrong with them. Two-thirds of shops expect it to get worse The study found that 66% of its respondents expect the aviation-parts environment to worsen, while 72% reported dissatisfaction with pricing and 59% reported dissatisfaction with lead times. The company claimed that access to parts catalogs, part numbers, and technical information is believed to be the improvement most likely to have the greatest positive impact on maintenance operations. How parts scarcity turns into an ownership risk The report suggests that supportability is becoming an increasingly important ownership issue. Long-term parts and maintenance support is critical to maintaining airworthiness throughout an aircraft's lifespan. For owners, that means maintenance strategy increasingly becomes part of ownership strategy. The ability to source parts efficiently is becoming an important factor in aging aircraft ownership. The survey also highlights a growing divide within the maintenance ecosystem. Smaller shops are more likely to use mixtures of OEM, PMA, salvage, and owner-produced parts, while larger and turbine-focused operations remain more reliant on OEM channels. Why it matters For buyers of older airframes, the pre-purchase math should include part support and documentation as noteworthy items. The supply chain could keep thinning for shops that lean hardest on PMA, salvage, and owner-produced parts. That's the part of this story still being written.