AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2024 - 95

rather than quality of outcomes. Instead,
she decided to launch a " concierge practice "
(sometimes called a " boutique
practice " ) that was limited to 200 patients,
each of whom would pay a fixed quarterly
fee in return for which they would receive
as much primary healthcare services as
they needed. Dr. C did not accept insurance
or Medicare reimbursements-this
was strictly an out-of-pocket arrangement.
I've been a patient in Dr. C's concierge
practice for 14 years now, and this by far the
best healthcare I've experienced. Compared
to Dr. F's traditional fee-for-service practice,
the difference is like night versus day. I never
have difficulty scheduling an appointment
when I need one. I have never spent more
than three minutes in the waiting room, and
most of the time the wait time is zero. My
face-to-face sessions with Dr. C are never
less than 30 minutes and sometimes last a
full hour. In one particularly urgent situation,
Dr. C drove to my home for a house call.
This is the closest thing to primary healthcare
utopia I've experienced.
Now, the scope of this arrangement is
limited to primary care. If I need to see a
specialist, I do so via the traditional feefor-service
system that is largely covered
by Medicare. Similarly, my pharmaceutical
costs are outside the scope of Dr. C's
practice and partially reimbursed by my
Medicare Part D plan. Beyond these exceptions,
all my scheduled and unscheduled
primary healthcare needs are covered by
Dr. C's fixed quarterly fee.
Clearly Dr. C's concierge practice
model would not work for all patients. Her
quarterly fee is more than low-income
patients can afford, and more than most
young healthy adults would be willing to
pay. But for an older patient like me who
is reasonably well off, this provides a primary
healthcare experience vastly superior
to the traditional fee-for-service approach.
How is this working for Dr. C? I'm
not privy to her financial statements, but
based on what I know about the number of
patients in her concierge practice and the
fixed fee she charges every quarter, I estimate
her gross annual revenues are at least
$750,000. Subtracting her fixed costs-rent,
staff compensation, etc.-I'd be surprised if
her net income wasn't somewhere around
a half-million dollars. Seems like a win-win
for doctor and patients. Which got me to
thinking: Could a similar concierge fixed-fee
model provide aircraft owners with a superior
maintenance experience?
Concierge aircraft maintenance
Imagine this: Mr. E, an enterprising aviation
entrepreneur at a busy GA airport-perhaps
the owner of a maintenance shop or
FBO-concludes that the traditional timeand-materials
business model is not serving
the maintenance needs of aircraft owners
very well and decides to try something outside
the box. Mr. E sends an announcement
to all owners of high-performance singleengine
airplanes and light twins based on
the field that he is launching a " concierge "
maintenance shop that will provide maintenance
with guaranteed availability and
superior service for a maximum of (say)
Could a similar concierge
fixed-fee model provide
aircraft owners with a
superior maintenance
experience?
50 aircraft at a fixed annual fee, payable in
quarterly installments. Perhaps the fixed
annual fee would be $20,000 for a Bonanza
or Cessna Centurion or Piper Saratoga or
Cirrus SR22 (billed at $5,000 per quarter),
perhaps more for a light twin and less for a
Cessna 182 or Piper Cherokee 180.
Assuming the launch announcement
was well-received, and Mr. E felt confident
that his " practice " would be fully
subscribed, he would then secure a suitable
maintenance hangar and appropriate
insurance, and would hire two or three
experienced GA mechanics, preferably
all with inspection authorizations, and an
office manager who might double as a parts
manager. He would offer to pay the IAs a
compensation package 50 percent higher
than what they were previously making
working for a traditional time-and-materials
shop-say $120,000 a year plus benefits.
At that level, Mr. E should have no problems
staffing his enterprise.
Penciling this out, the result would be
stable and predictable annual revenues
of about $1 million, expenses of about
$600,000, and pre-tax profit for Mr. E of
about $400,000 per year. The 50 aircraft
owners in this concierge maintenance practice
would receive all the scheduled and
unscheduled maintenance they needed-
including the " annual ordeal " -for a fixed
annual fee. The fixed fee would cover all
mechanic labor and the cost of routine parts
like oil filters, gaskets, and fasteners. The
owners would be responsible for the costs
of non-routine parts like cylinders, and
also for " extraordinary items " like engine
and propeller overhauls, prop strike repairs,
and structural repairs covered by insurance.
Unlike a traditional time-and-materials
shop where the economic incentives are
biased toward maintenance maximalism,
Mr. E's concierge shop would have a strong
incentive to be maintenance minimalists,
and to perform only the maintenance
that was demonstrably necessary to make
the aircraft safe, reliable, and legal. Such a
minimalist philosophy would help keep fees
reasonable and the enterprise profitable.
I am convinced such an enterprise
could provide aircraft owners with a vastly
improved maintenance experience compared
with what they presently receive from
traditional time-and-materials shops, just as
concierge medical practices do compared
to traditional fee-for-service ones. I believe
this would also provide a superior business
model for enterprise owners like Mr. E.
What's wrong with this idea?
I've discussed this concierge maintenance
idea with nearly a dozen owners of traditional
time-and-materials shops and
received essentially the same response from
each of them: " That would never work for
GA maintenance, " they say, " because the
cost of maintaining these airplanes is just
too variable and unpredictable. " I've yet
to meet one shop or FBO owner who was
interested in pursuing the concept.
This rationale for rejecting the concierge
maintenance concept is totally
wrongheaded. While it's true that the cost
of maintaining a GA airplane is highly
variable and unpredictable, it's certainly
no more so than the cost of maintaining
the health of a human being, particularly
AOPA PILOT / November 2024
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2024

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