CHICAGO—Fokker Services’ plans to open a U.S. repair shop for Collins Aerospace-manufactured integrated drive generators will help the MRO provider alleviate service supply constraints during a period of heightened demand.
The new capabilities were announced last week at MRO Americas and will center on Fokker Services’ MRO facility in LaGrange, Georgia, where Fokker repairs pneumatic and hydraulic components and employs around 110 people.
The company’s focus will be on repairs and installations of serviceable integrated drive generator (IDG) units for Boeing 747, 757 and 767 aircraft initially. However, it also plans to eventually expand capabilities to other platforms including additional Boeing platforms and Airbus and Fokker aircraft types. Fokker Services also plans to expand its inventory of Collins IDG components in LaGrange. The company says work has already started on its first unit at the shop.
Fokker Services already operates an IDG repair shop at its Netherlands main base close to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, having obtained certification from Collins Aeorspace in 2020.
“We needed another shop to handle the high levels of work demand we are getting,” says Leon Kouters, vice president sales and marketing at Fokker Services Group. “We also have a sustainability agenda and we are trying to keep as many repairs in the region as possible, and similar in Europe. We will start off initially with the 747, 757 and 767 IDG repairs and add customers before eventually moving into other platforms such as Airbus A320 and 737 variants.”
Kouters also expects the U.S. IDG repair capability to help the company tackle some logistics-related challenges it has encountered in Europe, where achieving turnaround times of under 30 days have presented challenging environments for the company.
The LaGrange site is also undergoing some sustainability improvements. These include the installation of a one-megawatt solar array. “It’s the start of our sustainability drive but it does bring the facility to net zero targets,” says Craig Winter, president and managing director of Fokker Services America, noting that this will likely be achieved by June 1. Other sustainability initiatives at the facility include the recapture of used energy and adopting paperless practices with the aim of becoming 100% paperless operation by the end of 2025.
As a U.S.-based MRO facility, Winter believes the region’s repair specialists are playing catch-up to their counterparts in Europe. “I’ve been talking to airlines and some of their sustainability specialists about how we bring the whole aviation industry into this,” he says. “Airlines are working on sustainable aviation fuels as their near term move towards this [sustainability] but eventually the supply chain needs to play a role and look at the best technologies in the industrialization of MRO to be able to make that happen.”
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