MADRID—Iberia Maintenance expects to induct its first Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan (GTF) engine later this year, in either October or November, at its engine shop in Madrid.
Speaking to Aviation Week at the Aero Engines Europe conference in Madrid this week, Enrique Robledo, CTO at Iberia Maintenance, says the MRO provider expects the first engines to arrive at its engine shop in the next few months.
“We’ve recently finished the correlation of the test cell, so we now have the tooling and the training in place and are expecting the first engine in either October or November,” he says. “There is a high demand for this type of engine, and we are receiving calls to commence work as soon as possible.”
Iberia gained certification for the PW1100G, powering Airbus A320neo aircraft, nearly a year ago in October 2022. The GTF approval adds to existing capabilities in Madrid for the V2500, CFM56 and RB211 engines.
For nearly three years, Iberia has been ramping up its readiness for the engine family by investing in areas such as grinding, balancing and test data acquisition. This year, Iberia brought around 150 mechanics into its engine business in order to meet the ramp-up of work.
“It is a new engine, and we are building a separate workflow for this engine than the rest,” Robledo says. “We have determined capacity isolated from the rest of the shop so the capacity of the GTF won’t influence the rest of the shop.”
Robledo envisages after beginning repairs at a fixed level of capacity, Iberia Maintenance will eventually grow that capacity year by year or potentially every six months. “As a new engine, it makes sense to do it this way and will ensure slots are freed up for the rest of the non-GTF engine fleet,” he adds.
About 27% of Iberia’s overall MRO work is generated from the International Airlines Group, the parent company of airline affiliate Iberia, which also has British Airways, Aer Lingus and Vueling under its banner. The remaining 73% is from third-party customers, and over time, Robledo foresees a push for more third-party maintenance customers partly driven by engine MRO work—and eventually the split will be close to 80% third-party customers overall.
An interview with Enrique Robledo will feature in the October issue of Inside MRO.
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