The mechanics union says major U.S. domestic carriers dramatically increased outsourcing in recent years, and now spend nearly two-thirds of their maintenance dollars on contract repair stations here and abroad, including facilities in operations in China, El Salvador, Mexico, and the Philippines.

Foreign repair stations are not required to have the same number of FAA-certificated mechanics, or the same security rules, as airline-owned repair facilities in the U.S., the union noted.

While U.S. air carriers have outsourced maintenance for years to both domestic and foreign repair facilities where repairs are cheaper, the practice has grown in recent years.

From 1996 to 2006, air carriers continued to increase the percentage of maintenance dollars spend on outsourced maintenance---from 37 percent to 64 percent. In 2006, $3.7 billion of the $5.7 billion spent on maintenance was outsourced, said the DOT IG. Of the heavy maintenance outsourced by nine U.S. airlines in 2006 . . .

. . 35 percent was sent to foreign maintenance providers, up from 21 percent in 2003.

The agency only certifies the number of foreign repair stations it can effectively monitor. Oversight is conducted by FAA inspectors assigned to field offices in London, Frankfurt, Singapore, New York, Miami, Dallas and San Francisco.

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