MRO 2008 Show News Briefing - April 7, 2008 - (Page 2)

ENGINES Airplanes or MRO? That’s Carriers’ Quandary, Says GE’s Tom Gentile It’s appropriate that GE Aviation’s new services chief Tom Gentile is a veteran of GE Money (he’s a Six Sigma quality blackbelt too, and has worked internationally for General Motors), as money is on the airlines’ minds these days. The carriers are asking the fundamental question, Do we buy more airplanes or step up the MRO on existing ones? When they decide on Tom Gentile. the latter, GE is stepping up too. The company, says Gentile (pronounced genTILLY) is using its OEM knowhow to boost the performance and extend the life of existing engines. That can increase time on wing, and thereby raise GE’s customers’ revenues. Incremental adjustments can increase engine efficiency too: “The price of jet fuel is rising to unprecedented levels,” Gentile notes. “Fuel burn is one topic that’s on everybody’s mind no matter where they are.” “The three biggest years of orders” in industry history mean that the demand for service will increase too, he says. GE, accordingly, is expanding as far afield as Brazil (page 4). It’s selling its majority stake in GE Engine Services (Xiamen), to HAECO but comes out of the deal with a 22-year pact for GE90 parts. GE is also aggressively pursuing MRO network partners, adding to a list that already includes Air France, Emirates, JAL, and KLM. GE has a formal CF34 engine support network that includes Standard Aero in Canada, MTU in Germany, IHI in Japan, and GE’s own facility in Strother, Kans. And, just last month, GE publicized its latest OnPoint service agreement, with Colombia’s Avianca for CFM56-5Bs on Airbus A319 and A320 jets. GE Aviation is at Booth 1115. 2 Pratt MRO Growth Focused On Asia Pratt & Whitney (Booth 1901) is forging ahead with plans to increase its engine overhaul capacity by up to 500 engines per year—mostly CFM56s—at brand new facilities in Istanbul and Shanghai. Construction is now under way on both. The joint venture with Turkish Airlines Technic (shown) will be P&W’s eighth commercial engine overhaul center for CFM56 and V2500 engines; it will overhaul up to 200 engines a year at Sabiha Gokcen. The $99 million Shanghai joint venture with China Eastern will overhaul 200-300 CFM56s a year when fully operational by 2014, ramping up from its first two engines before the end of this year. Investment in that facility is put at $100 million. P&WC Taps Standard Aero for PW600s Pratt & Whitney Canada has selected Standard Aero (Booth 1120) to help maintain PW600-series engines for very light jets, including the PW610 for the Eclipse 500, and the PW617 for the Embraer Phenom 100. P&WC expects more than 600 VLJs with its engines this year, and has acted “very early in the process,” to secure aftermarket support help, said service center network vp Raffaele Virgili. Engines Seen Strongest for MRO Growth Engines will be the fastest-growing MRO business segment during the next ten years, says Denver-based TeamSAI, with global value of $13 billion by 2017, compared with $8.6 billion in 2007—for a compounded annual growth rate of 4.6%. “Engine MRO remains the largest segment representing more than 40% of the MRO market,” according to TeamSAI’s forecast report. Airlines in North America outsource 75% of engine work, although 75% of that work remains on the continent. TeamSAI president and CEO Chris Doan will participate in the stage-setting Forecast and Survey session Tuesday afternoon. The Low Maintenance GEnx With 30% fewer parts than the CF6, the new GEnx promises “greatly” reduced maintenance costs, says Volvo Aero, which has helped develop six key components of the new GE engine, and will manufacture six. Recent FAA certification of the GEnx-1B (for the Boeing 787) “is the fruit of four years of hard work,” Volvo Aero president Olof Persson said earlier this month. Volvo Aero Services is at Booth 2201, and GE Aviation is at Booth 1115. Testek Expands Test Line to A380 & 787 Testek, which specializes in power generation test equipment, is ready to support 787 customers for the jet’s massive 250 kW starter/generators. T estek has developed a combined stand that will test not only those variable frequency units, but also the rest of the Hamilton Sundstrand electrical equipment on the aircraft, including power controls. Testek is also offering power generation test systems for the Airbus A380 and its main and auxiliary variable frequency power generators. Booth 1807. Boeing disclosed the 787th order for a 787, by British Airways, at the end of December. April, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of MRO 2008 Show News Briefing - April 7, 2008

MRO 2008 Show News Briefing - April 7, 2008 Contents PBL and Partnerships Delta-Chromalloy PMA Reverse Engineering? Straighter, Rounder Regionals Buck the Trend Composites Loom Large Freighters and Cargo

MRO 2008 Show News Briefing - April 7, 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.