MTU Maintenance pushed a record number of engines through its overhaul shops in 2023 as new sites ramped up capacity and demand for the workhorse CFM56 and V2500 engines took flight.

This demand also benefited the MRO provider’s leasing arm, MTU Maintenance Lease Services, which saw revenue jump 50% year on year thanks to strong demand for spare engines.

Of the 1,300 shop visits that MTU performed across its network in 2023, approaching 400 were for the IAE V2500 used on Airbus A320ceo-family aircraft, while almost 200 were for the CFM56 – almost double the prior-year total.

There was also strong growth for the company’s widebody engine maintenance, with GE90 shop visits up 38% year on year and the ultra-large engine accounting for almost $1.3 billion of new maintenance contract.

MTU also benefitted from inspection and modification work for the much newer Pratt & Whitney PW1100G, which accounted for some 300 shop visits at the company in 2023. 

This included work at EME Aero, a joint venture between MTU Aero Engines and Lufthansa Technik in Rzeszów, Poland, which focuses on the maintenance of Pratt & Whitney GTF engines and whose shop visits doubled year on year.

In Asia, meanwhile, MTU Maintenance Zhuhai is scheduled to finish construction on its secondary location in Jinwan by the end of 2024, following the completion of an additional test cell in June 2023. This will greatly increase the location’s capacities for its engine portfolio consisting of CFM56, Leap, PW1100G and V2500 engines.

EME Aero and MTU Zhuhai GTF capabilities are likely to stay in high demand this year. Aviation Week Network’s Commercial Fleet & MRO Forecast 2024 predicts that in 2024, as a percentage of the total in-service fleet, a PW1100G is roughly seven times more likely to undergo an MRO event than a CFM56 or V2500.

However, hospital visits of the PW1100G and CFM Leap are forecast to be complete by 2026, at which point more normal maintenance rhythms should resume.