Page 15 - AAA JULY - SEPTEMBER 2019 Online Magazine

[ INTERVIEW: MTU MAINTENANCE ]

ON A

HIGH NOTE

Jaap Beijer, President and CEO,
MTU Maintenance Zhuhai

MTU Maintenance’s worldwide MRO facilities For both engine types, we follow a tri-location policy and serve the
were running at full capacity in 2018, with over engines at our shops in Canada, Germany and China. As a matter
1,000 commercial aero engine shop visits. The of fact, MTU Maintenance Zhuhai is the largest shop for narrow-
company meets the needs of its customers body engines in all of Asia, and fast growing. For the first half year
from its shops in Canada, Germany and China, of 2019 we have experienced a low double-digit growth in shop
with MTU Maintenance Zhuhai being accorded visits so far. It is currently fully dedicated to V2500-A5, CFM56-3,
the distinction of being the largest shop for nar- -5B and 7 MRO services.
rowbody engines in all of Asia. With 60 per cent
of its work coming from Asian customers, “We What is the share of business from Asia for CFM
expect to do over 300 shop visits in this shop 56 & V2500 aero engine maintenance?
for the first time in 2019, with a nearly equal split As we serve customers from three locations, this is difficult to tell.
between CFM56 and V2500 engines,” Jaap Of course, MTU Maintenance Zhuhai does focus on the Asian
Beijer, President and CEO, MTU Maintenance market. Last year, we received about 60 per cent of our work from
Zhuhai tells Atul Chandra.
Asian customers. We expect to do over 300 shop visits in this shop
for the first time in 2019, with a nearly equal split between CFM56
Edited Excerpts from the Interview: and V2500 engines. This will be circa 10 per cent more than in 2018.

Please elaborate on MTU
Maintenance’s performance in We are also currently expanding our facility to a capacity of 450
shop visits per year from 2021 to meet market demand – as the
2018 and thus far in 2019 WRT V2500-A5 and CFM56-5B and CFM56-7 are set to see their shop
related to maintenance of CFM 56 visit peaks in the next few years and Asian fleets are comparatively
& V2500 aero engines? young.

In 2018, MTU Maintenance’s worldwide facilities What has been the impact of the need for
were operating at full capacity and the com- greater inspection of CFM56-7B engine fan blades
pany completed well over 1,000 shop visits for following the April 2018 Southwest Airlines
commercial aero engines. Within the network, Boeing 737-700 inflight engine failure?
around a third of all visits were for the V2500
engine, the largest number we ever served in a As a result of the Southwest incident, the FAA and EASA issued a
given year. Another 17 per cent were performed number of ADs. This means that all CFM56-7 fan blades with more
on the CFM56, our second largest program than 20,000 cycles need to be removed and undergo an ultrasonic
as of today. inspection. Some airlines carry this out themselves with their own

ASIAN AIRLINES & AEROSPACE July/August/September 2019 | 15