Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is talking to Pratt & Whitney about adding GTF engine capabilities to its MRO services portfolio.
As the global fleet equipped by new-generation engines expands, IAI has been working to expand its narrrowbody powerplant offering. Following FAA and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification, IAI is fully authorized to perform Leap engine maintenance services for the Leap-1A engine, on the Airbus A320neo family, and the Leap-1B, powering the Boeing 737 MAX.
“We are just started with the Leap and we are building our capability for full MRO. It is a wonderful engine,” Yaacov Berkovitz, group executive vice president and general manager at IAI, tells Aviation Week. IAI has introduced a quick-turn shop visit capability for Leap engines.
“The Leaps and the GTFs are the future engines,” Berkovitz says. “They will be there, and I believe all the [technical] issues which [surround] them will be rectified, and [they] will be great engines on the platform,” he says.
Asked whether IAI also wants to add Pratt’s GTF to its engine MRO portfolio, Berkovitz says that it depends. “We just started talking [with Pratt], but talking is not doing. It will take a bit of time,” he says, adding the GTF is very interesting to get in. “I'm looking [at] it, of course. I would be more then happy to enter,” he says.
In the meantime, IAI is benefiting from the extended service lives of older engines like the CFM56, the Pratt PW4000 and the International Aero Engines V2500, among other types.
“I would say that along the years, the OEMs went into more fuel-efficient engines,” Berkovitz says. “Some new engines we are seeing more susceptible. Then airlines have to remove them [from the wing] much faster then expected.”
“But I'm benefiting from that,” he continues. “I have the MRO for the other engines. And now instead moving them out of the service, airlines want to keep going with that.”
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