LYON—After a strong first quarter for its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) activities on the CFM56 and Leap turbofans, Safran is seeing no sign of a slowdown related to the war in the Middle East, company CEO Olivier Andriès said April 23.
Sales of spare parts rose 29% and services revenues grew 43% year-over-year, he said, speaking at Safran's first-quarter analyst call. Its performance and a favorable outlook have led Safran to confirm its guidance for the full year, with spare parts revenues increasing around 15% and services revenues around 20%.
Spare parts revenues for civil engines benefitted from greater workscopes. “There's quite a high number of shop visits with a full scope of work addressing not only the core engine ... but also the fan and the low-pressure turbine,” Andriès said. Meanwhile, Leap rate-per-flight-hour contracts drove service revenues.
After having talked to some 20 carriers from every region in mid-April, Andriès expressed optimism for the coming months. “I got no indication at all that there is any potential acceleration in the pace of retirements of aircraft,” he said. “If you look at the first quarter, there have been 44 CFM56-powered aircraft retired, which is about 1.5%.” Moreover, in the past three to four years, most carriers complained about a capacity shortage, he added, meaning demand for shop visits will remain steady.
His confidence extends to the impact of the Iran war. “If we look at CFM56 utilization pre- and post-conflict, it has remained stable so far,” he said. “So we have no indication at all that there will be a reduction in scope or in number of visits for the months to come.”
Some consequences may emerge, however, on MRO activities for those higher-thrust engines that power widebody aircraft, as the Middle East accounts for 20% of the global widebody fleet. “We believe that the widebodies will be more impacted than the narrowbodies in terms of overall number of cycles for the full year 2026,” Andriès said.
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