FORT WORTH—Airlines and operators extending the leases of narrowbody engine assets are leading to heavier maintenance workscopes at engine repair shops.
Speaking at Aero-Engines Americas on Jan. 28, Les Cronin, VP sales and marketing, MTU Aero Engines North America, says airlines and operators opting for lease extensions have mostly been driven by entry-into-service and delivery issues on new-generation narrowbodies aircraft such as the Airbus A320neo and the Boeing 737 MAX and durability challenges related to their CFM International Leap and Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines.
“Operators are not just extending leases out for two to three years, they’re extending them out even further than that. We’re seeing the region of six to eight years on average, and sometimes higher,” Cronin says. “We’ve also seen some operators acquiring assets from lessors to protect their operation and to make sure that they have continued capacity.”
Cronin notes a philosophical shift since the COVID pandemic nearly five years ago in terms of the type of work being undertaken on CFM56 and V2500 engines. Back then, he says there was high operator demand for specific types of workscopes for quick-turn engine shop visits.
“What we’re with witnessing now, as these aircraft are being extended, are heavier work scopes being performed on them,” he says. “Namely, performance restorations, for example, life limited parts being reinstalled back into the engines themselves, full life on the cores and trying to match up the low-pressure compressor and the low-pressure turbine to that as well.”
One of the engine shops seeing greater demand for heavier workscopes is Aero Norway, which primarily focuses on CFM56 engines with plans underway to bring Leap MRO services online in 2025. “These engines are coming into the shop, and particularly in the last year, we’ve seen a lot heavier workscopes,” says Neil Russell, the Stavanger-based company’s CEO. “It used to be core performance restoration where the LPT at a minimum level as well as the fan and booster final as well. But you’re seeing front to back all the way through.”
Russell says due to this, engine MROs are having to fix capacity when planning the shop visit. “You have to look ahead to see what can you do when moving engines into the shop,” Russell says. With the issues in the marketplace today, it makes it very difficult for the MRO to plan and then look at the capacity.”
From the perspective of a lessor with its own maintenance business, Caroline Vandedrinck, SVP, materials and services at U.S.-based Willis Lease Finance Corporation, says the extension of leases by operators means there is a lack of teardown activity. “Used serviceable material is not highly available as demand for engine shop visits is picking up,” Vandedrinck says.
Another factor is the financial drivers behind how operators plan their maintenance. “Airlines are still cost conscious. If they can bring an engine to a hospital shop and do the repairs in there, they will do that before they go to performance restoration,” Vandedrinck adds.
Mike Walsh, President, BP Aero, sees more airlines and lessors changing their mindset in relation to shop visits. “They [airlines and lessors] are becoming far more willing to do the specialized work scopes and doing the quick turn workscopes,” he says. Walsh adds that this has been important for Dallas-based BP Aero when working and planning workscopes with its customers, with a continuation of the industry’s supply versus demand imbalance predicted. “You have to treat every engine differently,” Walsh says. “We’ll receive engines sometimes with a blanket work scope from a customer. You really need to evaluate not just the situation, the customers and the condition and then what their expectations are: how long do they want it for? How long is it going to stay on wing?”
Related Content
