Between labor and parts, a 757 heavy C check might cost $2 million to $3 million. Might be more, could be less, but $8 million to $12 million, as you well know, amounts to rounding errors for an airline with $24 billion of annual revenue. AMR is on target to lose about $1.2 billion or more in 2011. $8 million to $12 million is less than one-tenth of one percent of that expected loss. Blow the budget? That's a little melodramatic.
Why send the four 757s to Timco? Probably to get some evidence for the executive suite and their army of consultants about whether outsourcing is more or less expensive than insourcing, taking into account the quality of the work and the turnaround time. The jury may no longer "be out" once these four airplanes are returned from Timco.
Once AA is forced to pay market rates for its line maintenance (and that market rate is nearly $50/hr, no?), many of the Tulsa chest-thumpers will no doubt move from their low-cost haven to the high-cost cities to chase that $100k annual income in NYC or LAX or MIA or CHI. Pigs will fly, of course, before AA agrees to pay $50/hr in Tulsa or Fort Worth for heavy overhaul. And besides, with the impending AMT shortage (especially among holders of A&P tickets), AA won't have enough mechanics to cover both the line and the bases. Makes sense to me to finally experiment with what has worked at UA and most other competitors - finding lower-cost providers of heavy overhaul.
Maybe the future of inhouse heavy overhaul at AA would consist of some $50/hr A&Ps supervising a larger army (larger than it is today) of $25/hr OSMs and other helpers. Apparently in El Salvador, it's some $5/hr mechanics overseeing a bunch of $2/hr helpers.
