The Datum Report

Occupation 5234 · Skilled trades occupations

Aircraft maintenance and related trades

Half of full-time aircraft maintenance and related trades in the UK earn more than £45,779 a year, and half earn less.

Aircraft maintenance and related trades fit, service, repair and overhaul aircraft engines and assemblies. Licensed aircraft engineers are coded to Unit Group 3113.

How people enter it

Entrants usually possess GCSEs/S grades or a BTEC/SQA award. Apprenticeships in Engineering Maintenance at level 3 are available. NVQs/SVQs are available at level 2 and 3.

What the work involves

• examines drawings, manuals and specifications to determine appropriate methods and sequence of operations
• fits and assembles parts and/or metal sub-assemblies to fine tolerances to make aircraft engines
• replaces engine components or complete engines, installs and tests electrical and electronic components and systems in aircraft
• examines and inspects airframes and aircraft components, including landing gear, hydraulic systems, and de-icers to detect wear, cracks, breaks, leaks, or other problems
• maintains, repairs and rebuilds aircraft structures, functional components, and parts
• maintains comprehensive repair logs

Also called

Aeronautical engineer · Aircraft electrician · Aircraft engineer · Aircraft fitter · Aircraft mechanic · Maintenance engineer (aircraft)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for aircraft maintenance and related trades, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 4 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Boat and ship builders and repairers · Rail and rolling stock builders and repairers · Vehicle body builders and repairers · Vehicle paint technicians · Vehicle technicians, mechanics and electricians