🎯 The business: a brokerage for consumables and rotable parts for the two commonest airliners on Earth (filters, brakes, wheels, lights, seals) with FAA 8130-3 release tags, sold to airlines and repair shops in India, Southeast Asia and Latin America. You hold no inventory; you find the certified part, verify the paperwork and arrange the sale. The full aerospace game plan is in this section.
Airline purchasing departments, MRO shops (maintenance, repair and overhaul) and parts distributors in markets that are growing faster than their supply chains. A brokered brake assembly might sell for $15,000 to $40,000; a box of filters for $2,000 to $8,000. Broker margins run 8 to 20 percent. An AOG (aircraft on ground) call, where a plane is waiting on a part, pays whatever gets the part there tonight.
| LLC and insurance (aviation products liability is specialized) | $1,500 to $4,000 |
| ILS and PartsBase listings subscriptions, six months | $2,400 |
| ASA membership and training in parts documentation | $1,000 |
| Working capital (broker model buys after the purchase order) | $3,000 to $10,000 |
| All-in | ≈ $6,000 to $15,000 |
Learn the paperwork before the parts: the FAA 8130-3 and EASA Form 1 release tags, traceability back to the airline or manufacturer, and the difference between new, overhauled, serviceable and as-removed. Subscribe to the parts marketplaces where airlines post requests. Join the Aviation Suppliers Association and work toward its accreditation. Pick one aircraft type and twenty part numbers that move constantly, and become the person who always has a source.
Ten brokered deals a month averaging $12,000 at a 12 percent margin is about $14,000 a month with no inventory. AOG work pays double but is unpredictable. Brokers who grow buy and hold a small stock of the fastest-moving consumables, which raises margin to 25 to 40 percent on those items, and they add repair management, sending customers’ parts to U.S. shops and back.
Export controls: most civil airliner parts are EAR99 or 9A991 and ship license-free to most countries, but some are controlled, and any sale to a sanctioned airline, country or restricted party is prohibited. Screen every customer. The FAA suspected unapproved parts program and your own documentation standards are what keep you out of trouble. Aviation liability insurance before the first sale. Incoterms and payment by advance or letter of credit.
A part with paperwork that does not trace. A customer who returns a part as defective after installation. A deal lost to a broker who answered ten minutes faster. A customer later added to a sanctions list. The brokers who last verify every tag, specialize in one fleet, and build relationships with three or four repair shops so they can source anything on that aircraft within an hour.