Analysis of NRE Fees for American Airlines

The project mainly involves creating a standardized tool to help American Airlines evaluate the cost of Non-Recurring Engineering fees (NRE fees) that arise as a result of maintenance and repairs on airplanes. Since there are few manufacturers licensed by the FAA to complete these modifications, let alone have the capabilities to complete them, American Airlines is often charged substantial fees to complete even minor work. The team will begin by conducting academic research looking into how parallel industries such as Automotive, Aerospace, High-Tech Manufacturing, etc. deal with heavily regulated modifications. We will then use this academic research to building a framework that American Airlines is able to use to estimate the fair cost of completing some of these modifications. The hope is that American Airlines can use this framework to determine whether they are being charged fair prices, and if they are not, to use the framework as leveraging tool in negotiations.