That last point is where hand carries fail. A part with no release document, or with a release the receiving operator's approval does not accept, cannot be installed. It has flown across the world to sit in a quarantine cage. That is a records problem, solved at the supplier before the courier is sent, and it is the first question to ask when a broker offers a part that is available now.
Operations desk · 24/7
AOG hand carry for aircraft on ground parts
An aircraft on ground is a deadline with an aircraft attached to it, and the part is often small enough to sit under a seat. What decides the job is not the routing, it is whether the part carries a release the operator accepts and whether the check in desk will let it board.
Who callsA maintenance control centre, an MRO, a technical purchasing desk or a parts broker
Release papersEASA Form 1 or FAA 8130-3, matched to the operator's approval basis
Common stopperDangerous goods refused at passenger acceptance, not at the aircraft
Return legThe unserviceable core usually has to travel back, and it is planned at booking
Why an AOG part is a document problem before it is a transport problem
The cost of a grounded aircraft sits with the operator: the flights not flown, the passengers reaccommodated, the crew displaced and the effect on the next rotations. Published figures vary by type, route and time of day, so no serious supplier quotes one. The operator has its own number. What it wants from a courier is a delivery time it can put into the recovery plan and a part the engineer can fit.
OnBoard Courier is licensed in Dubai and works as a placement business. We take the enquiry, check whether the item can lawfully travel as passenger baggage, price the routing and place the assignment with an operating partner who books the seat and flies the courier. We hold no maintenance approval and we do not certify parts. What we do is make sure the paperwork that must travel with the part is in the bag before the courier leaves.
AOG for aircraft on ground parts: when does it have to be there?One tap starts the quote. A dispatcher answers within 15 minutes, day or night.
Firm quote in 15 minutes
AOG for aircraft on ground parts: tell us what has to fly. We answer with a flight and a price.
Five short questions. A dispatcher replies with a named departure, the delivery hour and one fixed price, day and night.
- One named courier from collection to signature
- Customs cleared in person on arrival
- Licensed UAE company, proper VAT invoices
What an AOG hand carry usually carries
The repeating items are avionics line replaceable units, sensors and probes, valves and actuators, pump and generator components, brake and landing gear parts, seals and bearing sets, cockpit displays, and cabin components that block a return to service. Consumables and standard hardware come up more often than people expect, because a bolt set with the wrong traceability holds an aircraft as effectively as a gearbox.
Most of it fits in a cabin bag. What does not is usually awkward rather than heavy, and the constraint becomes the outside dimensions of the shipping container. Aviation packaging is often rigid and reusable, which suits a cabin locker poorly, so the container question is asked at the enquiry. Where the item travels as accompanied checked baggage it stays tagged to the same person.
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Three departure boards, one desk: Emirates, flydubai and Etihad for AOG for aircraft on ground parts
A hand-carry is only as fast as the next departure. The desk watches three boards at once and books the one that lands first, then holds the one that leaves next.
The night bank out of Terminal 3
Between one and four in the morning Emirates pushes back a wave of widebodies from Terminal 3 that reach Europe before the first meeting and Asia by the afternoon. For AOG for aircraft on ground parts that wave is the reason a courier confirmed at eight in the evening is still delivering the next day.
Widebody only, non-stop to 140 plus citiesThe short sectors, several times a day
From Terminal 2 flydubai runs the one to five hour sectors: the Caucasus, Central Asia, East Africa, the Balkans, the subcontinent. Where a widebody leaves once a day, flydubai often leaves three times, which turns a missed slot into a ninety minute delay rather than a lost day.
Frequency is the fallbackAbu Dhabi as the second runway
Ninety minutes down the E11, Etihad leaves from Zayed International with its own bank of departures and, for the United States, immigration cleared before boarding. When the Dubai departure for AOG for aircraft on ground parts is gone, the desk looks at Abu Dhabi before it looks at tomorrow.
US preclearance at AUHThe desk holds no allegiance to a carrier. The booking goes to whichever board puts a courier at AOG for aircraft on ground parts first, at a fare the quote can carry.
AOG for aircraft on ground parts: every hour it waits is an hour it is not moving.
Five questions, one fixed price, a named flight. The desk answers within 15 minutes, day and night, and you decide.
The release documentation
A serviceable part travels with its release to service: an EASA Form 1 in the European system, an FAA 8130-3 in the United States system, and sometimes a dual release covering both. Which one the receiving operator can accept depends on its own approval basis and on the arrangements between the authorities involved. The operator or the MRO decides what is acceptable, and they should be asked in writing before the part is collected.
Around the release sit the supporting records: part and serial numbers matching the tag, batch or lot traceability, shelf life and cure dates for anything with a limit, and a trace back to a certificated source. Some operators also want a statement that the part has not been through an accident, incident or heavy landing. Photograph the tag and the labels at collection, because a tag separated from a part in transit turns a serviceable unit into scrap.
Dangerous goods that stop the assignment at check in
This is where aviation parts differ from every other cargo in this business. A chemical oxygen generator cannot travel as passenger baggage. A lithium battery above what a passenger may carry, or one damaged, recalled or of unknown state, will be refused. A gas charged accumulator, an inflated tyre and wheel assembly, a fire extinguisher or a slide bottle is a gas under pressure. Paints, sealants, adhesives, solvents and some greases are hazardous in their own right.
The one that catches people out is the fuel wetted or hydraulically wetted component. A pump, valve or fuel control unit that has been in service holds a residue, and residue counts. Some may travel if the maintenance organisation has drained and purged them and certifies that in writing. Others cannot travel with a passenger at all. Ask the supplier what the unit last had inside it before asking about flight times.
Working with an MRO and a parts broker
An AOG file usually has three or four parties: the operator whose aircraft is stopped, the maintenance organisation doing the work, the supplier or broker holding the part, and the forwarder holding the transport. Establish early who is the importer of record at destination, because it is not always the operator and it is never the courier. A part going to a third party base may be imported by the base, by the operator or under a temporary arrangement.
Then establish the commercial basis, because it decides the return leg. An outright purchase has no return. A loan has a return date and usually a daily charge after it. An exchange has a core return period with a penalty if the unserviceable unit is not back inside it. A broker knows these terms and a maintenance controller at three in the morning may not, so ask at booking rather than a fortnight later.
The return of the unserviceable unit
The core comes back in the container the serviceable part arrived in, which is why the container stays at the hangar rather than in a skip. It is labelled unserviceable, with the removal tag completed and the reason for removal recorded, and the serviceable labels removed so nobody downstream mistakes its status. If the same courier is to wait for the return, that is planned when the outbound seat is bought.
The customs side of the return is a separate decision. A core moving back for repair is a different entry from a sale, and in many countries it can move under a repair and return or temporary export arrangement so duty is not paid twice on the same unit. That treatment is set up at the point of export rather than claimed afterwards. Where the part left one country, was fitted in a second and the core returns to a third, say so early.
Customs on an aviation part
Aircraft parts do get particular treatment in many customs regimes, through duty relief for civil aircraft parts, temporary admission, and arrangements comparable to the relief used for ships spares in transit. What is available depends on the country of arrival, the status of the receiving organisation and the paperwork presented. It is a question for the local broker, not an assumption to build a delivery time on.
What holds true everywhere is that the entry needs a real description, a defensible value and a named importer. A part described as an aircraft part with a nominal value invites exactly the inspection the urgency cannot absorb. Where the part is on loan or exchange rather than sold, the invoice says so and states a value for customs purposes. Getting that right buys more hours than any routing decision.
Before you send the enquiry
Everything below shortens the quote, and most of it decides whether the assignment is possible at all.
- Confirm with the operator or MRO which release document they can accept before collection.
- Check the part and serial numbers against the tag and the release, and photograph both.
- Ask the supplier what the unit last contained, and whether it is drained, purged and certified.
- Send battery, gas and pressurised assembly details with the enquiry, not at the check in desk.
- Name the importer of record at destination and confirm the broker who will file the entry.
- Record whether the part is sold, loaned or exchanged, and note any core return period.
- Keep the shipping container at the hangar for the unserviceable unit to travel back in.
- Give a delivery address a driver can find at night, with a contact who is on shift.
Questions the desk is asked
01Can the courier carry a lithium battery unit?
Only within what a passenger may lawfully carry and only if the operating airline accepts it. Aviation batteries are often above that limit, and a damaged, recalled or unknown state battery is refused outright. Send the battery specification with the enquiry.
02What about a fuel wetted pump or valve?
It depends on whether the maintenance organisation has drained and purged it and will certify that in writing. Some units may then travel as passenger baggage and some cannot travel with a passenger under any condition. The supplier has to answer this first.
03Do you check the release paperwork?
We check that a release document is present and that the part and serial numbers match it. We hold no maintenance approval and do not judge whether a release is acceptable to your operator. That decision is theirs.
04Can the courier deliver airside or to the hangar?
To the hangar or stores building the maintenance organisation nominates, against signature. Airside access is controlled by the airport and the handling agent and cannot be assumed, so say at booking where the handover is and who arranges the escort.
05Will the same courier bring the core back?
They can, if it is planned when the outbound seat is bought. Holding a courier at destination has a cost, but it is usually lower than a second assignment and it keeps an exchange core inside its return period.
06Are you an aviation parts supplier?
No. OnBoard Courier is a Dubai licensed placement business. We quote the movement, check the dangerous goods position and place the assignment with an operating partner who books the seat and flies the courier. We do not trade parts.
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