While this year’s Farnborough air show produced few fireworks in terms of aircraft orders, the maintenance market has had plenty to celebrate.
Outside big commitments from Delta Air Lines and Easyjet, aircraft manufacturers had little to announce, although Boeing will be encouraged by a clutch of orders for the 737 Max from airlines and lessors and Embraer’s E2 program received a vital boost from Porter Airlines' 20-unit order.
Some of those orders led to maintenance deals, with Delta TechOps becoming part of CFM’s MRO network to support LEAP-1B engines following the airline’s order for 100 737 Max aircraft.
The airframers were also active in the aftermarket, with Boeing agreeing a five-year materials contract with Chinese MRO provider GAMECO.
Embraer, meanwhile, launched Beacon, its maintenance coordination platform, with a trial partnership with Spanish carrier Binter Canarias. During the trial, Beacon will support all maintenance operations and accelerate aircraft return-to-service time by integrating the platform into the airline’s support stations.
Separately, Embraer also added seven aircraft to its pool program with LOT Polish Airlines, bringing the number of E-Jet aircraft covered to 44 of the flag carrier’s fleet.
The engine OEMs were also busy, with Rolls-Royce inking new TotalCare contracts for Norse Atlantic’s Trent 1000 engines and for the Trent XWBs that will power six Airbus A350-900s for new Italian flag carrier ITA.
Rival GE Aviation, meanwhile, celebrated Korean Air signing up to a five-year TrueChoice material services deal for its GE90 engines.
South African carrier Safair Operations also signed a five-year deal, in its case to extend TrueChoice Overhaul services with GE for CFM56-7B engines.
Finally, Pratt & Whitney Canada, a business unit of Pratt & Whitney, announced that Afrijet of Gabon had signed a 12-year ‘Guaranteed Maintenance Cost Plan’ to cover the engines on three ATR72-600 aircraft that are on order.
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