On a recent trip that had me hanging around an avionics shop for a while, I had a chance to talk with the shop’s manager about his business, the market, and where he sees the aircraft service world in the coming new year. He was pretty negative. It’s a sour tone I’ve heard plenty of times over the years, and it’s that customers balk at aircraft shop labor rates yet don’t think twice about paying more—a lot more in some cases—for labor at the typical automotive service department.
The installation labor rate at this particular well-established and well-regarded avionics shop was nearly $30 less than what the dealership that wrenches my Acura charges. But the shop manager told me plenty of customers with high-end aircraft question his rates and even push back when he charges a one-hour minimum for troubleshooting. This mindset is closing shops, and that’s just bad for an industry feeling the pain from the shortage of skilled aircraft techs.
Rates Will Be on the Rise
With shop overhead costs straining operating budgets, it’s no surprise that recent surveys reveal that shops plan to increase their rates in the coming year. One labor and rate survey conducted by the Aircraft Electronics Association (the AEA is a long-respected avionics trade organization) showed that over 75% of avionics shops in nearly every region of the U.S. and Canada plan to boost rates, while also giving raises and increasing benefits for shop managers and other key personnel. I suppose that’s one way to hang on to good help—which isn’t exactly easy when techs can make bigger paychecks in other industries.
Skimming the AEA avionics shop labor survey that was conducted in mid-2025, consider that the average installation shop hourly labor rate on the East Coast is $134. It’s roughly the same in the Midwest region and $149 per hour in the West, where many shops do business in California. You’ll pay slightly more per hour for specialty bench work like instrument repair and overhaul. But since many shops farm this work out, they’ll add something to the third-party repair to make it worth their effort since they’ll have to coordinate the repair process. At most shops, money goes out as fast as it comes in.
More than one avionics shop manager told me that hangar-keepers and liability insurance, installation supplies, and test equipment calibration rank among the top sources of overhead when it comes to doing business. And when it comes to retaining top talent, employee benefits like health insurance and retirement contributions add to the expenses.
Flat-Rate Pricing Becoming More Common
At shops that perform regular airframe and engine maintenance, prices seem to be all over the place, with many shops putting flat-rate pricing in place. For those that charge hourly rates, the typical price for piston singles and twins ranges anywhere from $110 to $225 per hour, depending on the size, expertise, and location of the shop. That’s a big spread. Regardless, frustrated that customers push back on shop rates, some shops are abandoning pistons altogether and only work on turbines because they can charge more. Or, they charge incredibly high hourly rates for pistons.
“I was a loyal customer at my maintenance shop for years and they did me right when they wrenched my later-model Skylane, but when it was time to schedule its next annual inspection, I was told the shop has stopped working on piston planes,” one reader told me. It’s not the first time I’ve heard that. He was already paying high prices—$225 per hour, with a one-hour minimum to have anything done.
Some shops even charge consulting fees, north of $100 per hour, to help you sift through the used aircraft market or to explain the ins and outs of aircraft maintenance, and charge flat-rate fees “if you want to know why another shop is telling you that you need something fixed,” as one shop ad said.
Many shops have fixed pricing for annual inspections, but it’s important to understand what you get and don’t get for the flat-rate buy-in. As one example, one shop was advertising flat-rate annual inspection fees for a wide variety of piston models—singles and twins. It includes one hour of AD research, the cleaning, gapping, testing, and rotating spark plugs, a compression check, battery servicing, the labor for changing the oil and filter (parts are extra), lubricating pulleys, hinges, and bellcranks, landing gear extension/retraction test for retracs, magneto to engine timing, removal/reinstallation of inspection panels and interior components necessary for inspection, ELT test and inspection per FAR 91.207, and an engine ground run. How much for all that, which of course doesn’t include fixing anything? For a Cirrus it’s $4,250, for a Beech 36 is $3,500, a Cessna 182 RG is $3,000, and a Piper PA-31 is $7,750, as a few examples. Of course, the shop absolutely must communicate extra charges to you before doing the work, as explained in this report.
Curious what an annual condition inspection for my Rotax 912 engine might cost, I found a shop that flat-rates the task for E-LSA/S-LSA models at $1,500. It includes the inspection labor, the logbook and service bulletin research, the parts (three liters of AeroShell Sport +4 oil and a Rotax filter) and labor for an oil change, plus cutting open and inspecting the removed oil filter, checking the magnetic chip detector, doing a compression check, measuring the overload clutch torque, replacing all eight spark plugs, and testing of the ELT. Another shop advertised a similar service for $1,900. It sure saves money if you can do this yourself. Here’s a video on changing the oil on that Rotax 912.
Owner Assisted Work: More About Learning
We all recognize the benefits of owner-assisted annuals, and if you do the grunt work like removing and reinstalling the interior and inspection plates, and some of the tasks that the typical non-mechanic owner might handle with the oversight of a mechanic, you might save some money. But not all shops will welcome your hands in their shop. “I used to allow owner-assisted work but to be honest, it got to be more of an effort keeping an eye on the owner than it was worth—especially when some of my tools went missing,” one shop owner told me. Another shop owner flat-out refuses to accommodate owner-assisted maintenance on his shop floor, stating insurance and liability issues, though he said he will travel to the owner’s hangar to do some of the work and welcomed the owner to help with simple tasks, while charging a travel fee.
It’s a fragile working relationship and while some mechanics are open to having the owner tag along for the learning experience, others find it to be a distraction. If your shop does agree to it (you’ll have much better luck at smaller shops), have a real conversation with the tech beforehand. Annual inspections are the responsibility of A&P mechanics with IA credential, and there is a fair amount of research and paperwork involved. Still, if your primary goal is to save a ton of money by doing some of the work yourself, you probably have the wrong approach. In my view, it’s more about learning what’s under the skin of your machine and having a better understanding of the issues that are found during the inspection.
Wrap It Up
I think we’ll see a substantial rise in labor rates in the coming years as shops struggle to turn big enough profits to keep the doors open. For one thing, the shortage of skilled techs isn’t helping, and shops simply have to show the dough when it comes to staffing the work floor. Looking back at the AEA shop and labor rates survey, the average starting hourly wage for an avionics installation tech at an East Coast shop is $24 and top talent might make $44 per hour. I know a guy who wrenches trucks at a big Kenworth dealership who makes nearly twice that.
Moreover, given the liability that tags along with wrenching flying machines, it’s easy to understand a shop owner’s frustration when automotive maintenance shops get away with charging more.
But it’s not just the hourly rate… How many times does your car go to the shop for an inspection that takes a month and 100 man hours to disassemble/repair/reassemble? Aviation, starting with the manufacturer, really needs to make maintenance less frequent and more efficient like car manufacturers have.
If your car has a mechanical issue, you pull over to the side of the road and can get a tow to have it repaired. You can’t pull over at 8,000′. So we do more inspections and more preventative maintenance. It takes time to do those things and mechanics should be paid for their knowledge and labor, they have to support their families as prices rise as well.
I know several great A&Ps who decided it wasn’t worth the low pay available and are working in Airport Maintenance or automotive mechanic making way more money.
A resilient and aggravatingly persistent topic that has not change its message, or even its wording, for the last 55 years. Probably longer, but that’s as far back as my experience goes.
The only way around the wage disparity is to strike out on your own where you can work more hours for less money while gaining on the equity side of the ledger.
If you can wiggle through the first 10 years, it gets much easier, at least financially. But for many of us, the choice to accept this kind of compensation-and its inherent level of accountability-has little to do with money.
When I had my shop I had one guy that would come in for his annual and when it was done I would give him the bill and he would count out $100 bills smile and say, see you next year. On the other end of the spectrum was the Cub I put a ton of work into, kept the owner informed and got approval for everything. It was a pretty big bill. He complained about it, I knocked some off. The next year I saw him and said isn’t you annual due? He said “so and so” did it and it was all good. I said of course it was. I did it all last year. You pit all that work into it and they think you ripped them off so they go elsewhere.
As for owner assisted, if they wanted to help I had them pill panels and interior. I was a one man shop so it was some company and an extra set if eyes.
My thinking on aircraft owners complaining about the cost even though they would pay more for their car, was that for the majority of the people their car was a necessity where the aircraft was s hobby.
My hanger will hold my 3 cars, my garage will not hold my Piper. I don’t need the government’s certification to work on any vehicle let alone my own. There are a multitude more parts suppliers for my car than my airplane. An average auto shop with 6 bays will service on average 13 cars per DAY, haven’t run across an aircraft shop than can service 13 aircraft a day. Most auto techs are paid per flat rate hour (and have been for as long as I can remember) not on an hourly basis on the repair they perform. If your diesel tech makes $88 per flat rate hour but can only produce 20 flat rate hours he makes the same as the $44 A&P that gets paid for a 40 hour week
Presently in my area, Annapolis Md., (which is in the Baltimore, D.C. region) the mechanical labor rate is $160. (High line Independent) to $215 (High line Dealer) an hour not that different from $110 to $225 hourly rate for airplanes, even though there is more competition in the automotive industry. . I’ve never had a $3,000, $4,000 or even a $1,500 inspection on my Buick
My 1967 Piper does not have the sophisticated features newer vehicles have. It does not have computer controlled electronic ignition, electronic fuel injection, variable cam timing, airbags, antilock brakes, electronic stability control, traction control, back up camera, automatic emergency braking, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alerting, adaptive cruise control, 360 degree camera monitoring, tire pressure monitoring system, forward collision warning, driver attention warning, automatic crash notification. I grant you that newer aircraft have advanced avionics, electronic stability protection, enhanced vision systems, advanced weather detection systems, pilot inflight monitoring (including auto land systems for pilot incapacitation), computer controlled engine management systems (but not in an aircraft I can afford).
I have no problem with paying my A&P AI, his technical expertise is well worth it and I want him to make a profit so that he will be there next year but why do we continue to compare the automotive industry to the aviation industry when it comes to costs ? Maybe when the number of small GA aircraft equal the number of automobiles on the road and the number of aircraft repair shops and parts suppliers equals the same number of auto shops & suppliers then we can make a better comparison
We see automotive shop rates north of 200€/h and parts prices are (in certain cases) doubled from ~2 years ago. Quality has taken a nosedive (brakepads, rotors, tires, suspension parts) at approximately 65% TIS before replacement is due again. CO2 taxes go up January 2026 and our political clowns do their level best to end mobility as we knew it. We sell about 1200-1600 used vehicles per month and our inhouse shop is booked solid for 5-6 weeks in advance. Purchasing customers will at times wait 3-4 weeks just to take delivery.
75% of expensive vehicles are sold to nationalities from outside the European Union and/or exported. Cash is the main currency used – and large portions of that money has a certain smell – generally associated with deep frying/ fried food sales.
Maintaining aircraft for less than $200/ hour seems extremely nice. Its not going to remain this cheap, so get done what you can while the prices are low.