ENGINEERING Holding, Russia's leading aviation MRO specialist, is planning to boost its engine repair capacity for the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 airliner families. The decision is linked to the growing demand for the services provided by the company's CFM56-5B/7B maintenance shop, which was launched in 2016 on the premises of subsidiary S 7 ENGINEERING at Domodedovo airport.
ENGINEERING will launch its second CFM56-5B/7B maintenance facility by the end of 2017 as part of S 7 ENGINEERING's operation at Mineralnye Vody airport.
S 7 ENGINEERING had its EASA Part 145 certificate extended in May 2017 to cover maintenance operations on CFM56-5B/7B engines. The company's repair shop for CFM International's turbofan engines, the only such facility in Russia and the CIS, was launched in partnership with SR Technics, a global aero-engine MRO provider.
The facility was initially expected to service two dozen engines in its first year of operation, but S 7 ENGINEERING personnel managed to repair 50 powerplants in the first 10 months, between May 2016 and early March 2017. A third of the operations performed involved heavy maintenance jobs on CFM56-5B/7B engines.
“By our most conservative estimates, our engine repair facility helped airlines save a total of $2 million in MRO costs, which is a significant sum for our customers,” commented Roman Fedorov, ENGINEERING's deputy general director for finance.
During this period, S 7 ENGINEERING provided CFM56-5B/7B repair services to Russian carriers Aeroflot, Nordavia, Rossiya, UTair, and S7 Airlines.
“Unfortunately, we had to decline a number of potential orders because the demand for our engine maintenance services immediately after we launched the facility proved considerably higher than its capacity,” Fedorov said. “This is why we decided to double our powerplant maintenance by opening a similar facility at Mineralnye Vody. This way ENGINEERING will provide customers with additional opportunities for having their engines serviced in Russia, helping more of our clients save significant sums while getting a level of service on a par with that offered by the best international providers.”
Also in 2016, ENGINEERING partnered with Zodiac Aerospace Services to open the only aircraft lavatory repair shop in Russia and the CIS. In the first three months of operation, the facility helped its customers save around $100,000 in total.
ENGINEERING will continue to localize aircraft component maintenance in Russia in 2017. TAT ENGINEERING, a joint venture with TAT Technologies, will be launched at Novosibirsk's Tolmachevo airport this spring to provide heat exchanger overhaul services.
“We are grateful to our foreign partners; together with our personnel they did a truly gigantic job of making these MRO localization success stories reality,” Fedorov commented. “We are also thankful to our clients, who trust us with their aircraft, powerplants, and components. ENGINEERING will continue to bring new standards and technologies to Russia and the CIS, offering our customers a balance of maintenance quality, cost, and speed on the best international level. It is our strong belief that this is key to the successful development of both our customers and ENGINEERING itself.”