Inside MRO News Briefs And Contracts, November 2022

NEWS

LHT Reports Strong Performance

Lufthansa Technik has continued to strengthen through 2022, in line with big improvements at its parent group and its third-party airline customers.

With business volume back at 90% of the pre-COVID-19-crisis level, the MRO provider posted a pre-tax profit of €184 million ($184 million) for the three months ending Sept. 30, following an earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of €22 million in the same period one year ago.

Its adjusted EBIT of €177 million was a quarterly record, and its parent has forecast that Lufthansa Technik is on course for its best-ever annual result.

The German MRO giant’s nine-month EBIT was €337 million, which was better than any of Lufthansa’s passenger airlines and was exceeded among all the group’s business units only by the cargo segment.

Revenue for the first nine months of the year rose 46% to €4 billion, thanks in part to a doubling of capacity at Lufthansa Group’s passenger airlines.

In September, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that talks with private equity firms about the sale of a minority stake in Lufthansa Technik could begin in December.

GE and Pratt Results Underscore MRO Surge

Raytheon Technologies and General Electric reported strong commercial-aftermarket growth within their respective Pratt & Whitney and GE Aerospace business units last quarter, lending support to the view that the aircraft maintenance sector is tracking toward a full recovery.

Pratt’s commercial services business revenues were up 23% year-over-year (YOY) and 14% sequentially, with strong showings across its current and legacy platforms, including Pratt & Whitney Canada, company executives said on a third-quarter earnings call Oct. 25.

Pratt’s aftermarket business has been bolstered by heavy freighter usage, which is helping support demand for older platforms such as the PW4000. The continued global narrowbody recovery, particularly in large markets such as the Asia-Pacific region that have lagged behind some other global regions, will help V2500 shop volume and aftermarket revenue—the company’s biggest services driver while the PW1000G fleet steadily matures—continue to climb.

“We’ve talked about the shop visits going up about 20% on a full-year basis,” Chief Financial Officer Neil Mitchill said. “We saw about a 10% growth here in the third quarter. I think we’ve got a pretty good line of sight to the fourth quarter at this point. So I think the 20% up year-over-year still sticks.”

GE Aerospace saw shop visits grow 10% sequentially and “more than 30%” YOY in the third quarter, CEO Larry Culp said on GE’s Oct. 25 earnings call. The company’s spare-parts rate—commercial spares shipped out or used in GE-provided time-and-materials shop visits expressed in millions of dollars in sales per day—continue to climb, reaching $29.4 million in the third quarter. The figure was a 33% jump YOY and 20% sequentially. Pre-pandemic, the figure was around $30 million per day.

“Shop visits were up year-over-year and sequentially, [and] the scope within those shop visits was more robust,” Culp said. “We saw a favorable mix with respect to our parts business as well.

“I think the operating mindset that we have is really to continue to drive shorter turnaround times, higher on-time delivery and really do all that we can to help the airlines meet what has been clearly quite robust demand on the part of the flying public,” he added.

CONTRACTS

Aeronautical Engineers has won a Jackson Square Aviation contract to perform six Boeing 737-800SF freighter conversions. The first two are slated to enter modification in May 2024, and the last is to be delivered in January 2026. Commercial Jet will perform those modifications.

AFI KLM E&M has been contracted by Norse Atlantic Airways to provide component support for 12 Boeing 787-9s. The package includes flight-hour repairs, access to a spare-parts pool and main base kit, logistical assistance services and predictive maintenance.

Amazon Air has agreed to lease 10 EFW-converted Airbus A330-300P2Fs from ­Altavair for delivery starting in late 2023. It has contracted Hawaiian Airlines to operate and maintain the aircraft for eight years, with options for five additional years.

Embraer has been contracted by Nordic Aviation Capital to perform freighter conversions on 10 Embraer 190s/195s for delivery starting in 2024.

FL Technics has signed a five-year contract with Norwegian for Boeing 737 wheel/brake support; the deal includes MAX support starting in 2025.

Safran has won a five-year AJW Group contract for component repairs on A320/A330 landing gear, braking and steering system equipment under the Landing Systems Landing Life program. The work will be performed in France, Mexico, Singapore and the UK.

Joramco has won a EuroAtlantic contract to perform heavy maintenance on two Boeing 777s. It was also selected by Flyadeal to perform a major A320neo structural repair that includes central and lateral panels, Frame 1, bulkhead and aircraft painting.

LIMCO Airrepair of Oklahoma has won a Collins Aerospace contract to maintain/repair 777 thermal components. The deal is valued at $6 million annually.