Gallery: Developments In Asia-Pacific's Engine Aftermarket

Singapore Aero Engine Services (SAESL) plans to invest around $180 million to expand its presence in Singapore. The engine MRO provider, a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and SIA Engineering Co., will add capacity to its existing facility close to Changi Airport through a new facility focusing on engine inductions and logistics services. It will also expand into the Rolls-Royce campus at Seletar Aerospace Park, focusing on large component and low-pressure turbine repairs. The capacity projects are expected to be completed by 2026.

Hong Kong-based maintenance provider HAECO signed an agreement earlier this month to undertake reverse bleed system (RBS) installations on CFM International Leap 1A engines. The agreement, signed this summer with Safran, will see Safran retrofit the RBS on the Leap to rectify an existing coking problem with the engine. The work will be carried out across HAECO's network of shops in Hong Kong, London, Amsterdam and Dallas.

ST Engineering signed a new five-year agreement for CFM International CFM56-7B engine maintenance with Indonesia-based Lion Air Group. The agreement, announced in February, is an extension of an existing agreement signed between both parties in May 2020. Under the new agreement, ST Engineering was contracted to provide MRO services on CFM56-7B engines that power Lion Air, Batik Air, Batik Air Malaysia and Thai Lion Air’s fleets of Boeing 737NG aircraft.

China-based MTU Maintenance Zhuhai is scheduled to finish construction of its second facility in Jinwan by the end of 2024. The new facility will have an initial capacity of 260 shop visits and will focus on maintenance for Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-JM and International Aero Engines V2500 engines. The company completed the construction of an additional test cell at the site in June last year.

Korean Air started constructing a new engine maintenance facility in Unbuk close to Incheon International Airport. Set for completion in 2027. The facility will more than triple the number of annual engine inductions from 100 to 360, and Korean Air says it will be the region’s largest engine repair shop. The building of the new site will streamline its existing operations across two sites, with its engine MRO facility in Bucheon and a test cell in Unbuk. The airline MRO’s current engine capabilities include Pratt & Whitney PW4000 and PW1100, CFM56 and General Electric GE90-115B engines. It plans to add GEnx and CFM Leap-1B in the coming years.

SIA Engineering Company (SIAEC) announced its exit from the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G engine Risk-Revenue Sharing Programme (RRSP) that was held through its NexGen Network (NGN2) subsidiary earlier this year. NGN2 invested in the RRSP in 2010 and held a 1% share of the program prior to its confirmed exit at the end of March. As a participant of the RRSP, SIAEC was required to share the costs, risks and revenues of the PW1500, which powers Airbus A220 aircraft. This spanned from design and development to its production, including spare parts, post-certification engineering support, marketing and sales and the provision of MRO services. According to local media, SIAEC wrote off around $25.1 million of net assets associated with the program.

In July 2024, Singapore-based ST Engineering signed a two-year with Safran to provide module repair offload support on the Leap 1A and 1B engines. Under the terms of agreement, Safran is offloading module repair work related to the high-pressure turbine (HPT) rotor assembly and stage 2 HPT nozzle assembly of the engines, which power Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max aircraft, respectively.