aircraft engine power-by-the-hour leasing model

Engines leased from GE / Rolls-Royce; lessor maintains, airline pays per operating hour. Same incentive structure as brakes.

The airlines do the same thing on engines. They call it power by the hour. The airline knows that for every hour that engine is operating — and you have to keep a log of every minute the engine is operating — they have to pay so much money to the owner of the engines. And the owner of the engines could be General Electric, it could be Rolls-Royce gas turbines, it could be a number of people. They're responsible for maintaining that engine, repairing that engine, and they lease it back to the airlines. Most of the aircraft you're flying on are owned by some big investment company. American Airlines typically doesn't own that aircraft. They're leasing it. They pay a certain amount per month or per hour or whatever for the engines to one company, for the airframe to another, for the brakes to another. It actually is not a bad system. It's sort of like Zipcar — you're renting the car.