New Aircraft Engines Bring High Repair Costs and Uncertainty for Airlines

Post by : Ramanpreet Kaur

Photo : Reuters

About 75% of aircraft engines today are made with new technology. But investing in engines like the CFM Leap and Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan (GTF) is not easy. This is because it’s still unclear how much the repairs will cost and how long the engines will last before needing maintenance.

Some people think the Leap engine might need repairs more often than older engines like the CFM56, but those repairs might be cheaper. However, experts say that fixing these new engines is still expensive and not quick. “Once you open the engine, you open your checkbook,” was a common saying during a recent aviation event in London.

The Leap and GTF engines are expected to be the main engines in future airplanes. Experts predict that by 2029, new technology engines will be more common than old ones, and by 2032, more repairs will happen on new engines than on older models.

But there are challenges. Maintenance companies (called MRO providers) see that there will still be many repairs needed for older engines like the CFM56 and V2500. Meanwhile, new engines like the Leap and GTF don’t have many repair options yet. This means MRO companies can’t add as much value for these new engines.

Julius Bogusevicius, who is in charge of engines at FL Technics, said that until more repair methods are developed for new engines, the work will mostly be about replacing old parts with new ones. This means the maintenance shops can only charge for the labor of swapping parts, not for repairing parts.

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