Garuda Indonesia’s maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) division, GMF AeroAsia, is set to become an authorized service center for Bombardier CRJ regional jets. The Indonesian state-owned carrier currently has no Bombardier aircraft in its fleet, but it recently ordered six CRJ1000s. Now GMF AeroAsia’s VP-sales and marketing, Jemsly Hutabarat, says the MRO provider and the airframer have signed a letter of intent that could result in GMF performing line and heavy maintenance on CRJ 200/700/900/1000 aircraft for Garuda and third-party customers.

Air Canada has agreed to two deals that will keep some of the airline’s work at the engine and component business units that Aveos fleet performance is selling.

Tight financing and big backlogs for Airbus A320NEO and Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are creating alarm in the engine leasing market, and Jon Sharp, president and CEO of Engine Lease Finance Corp. (ELFC), says his company is recording a higher-than-usual level of returns. “We have more and more engines on the ground, and I think competitors are in the same position,” says ELFC’s top executive.

Bombardier Aerospace’s Northern Ireland subsidiary Short Brothers has been selected by Pratt & Whitney and Irkut to supply the nacelle for the PW1400 engine on the Russian manufacturer’s planned MC-21 narrowbody airliner.

Delta Air Lines completed its proposed $65 million investment in Aeromexico, a move that gives the U.S. carrier a roughly 4.2% holding in its SkyTeam partner and continues a redevelopment plan that includes the recent purchase of an oil refinery, major revisions to its pilot scope clauses and funding the Chapter 11 reorganization of regional operator Pinnacle Airlines.

For Mexico's airline maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) industry, this is a time of change, especially given recent developments at Aeromexico and Mexicana MRO Services, the two heavyweights in airframe third-party maintenance in the country. Aeromexico runs a joint venture with Delta TechOps, and Mexicana MRO Services is operating despite the August 2010 bankruptcy and service suspension of Mexicana Airlines, which once accounted for 60% of its business.

The MD-11 aircraft is reaching a milestone: its first retirements. The aircraft due to be retired were operated by World Airways, which is being restructured under parent Global Aviation Holdings’s Chapter 11 filing. Aviation Week fleet data show that seven of Worlds’ MD-11s, two of which were passenger aircraft, are parked.

MTU Maintenance Hannover extended an existing engine contract with JetBlue Airways to include MRO for all of the operator's V2533 engines. The amended contract will run until 2020 with a five year renewal option. Avionics/IFE