Podcast: Aftermarket Insights From Singapore Airshow

Listen in to learn about key MRO and engine developments from Singapore Airshow 2024 with Aviation Week's James Pozzi and Christine Boynton.

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Rush Transcript:

James Pozzi:

Hello and welcome to the MRO podcast. I'm James Pozzi, MRO editor for the EMEA region at Aviation Week. And on today's episode, we'll be looking at the MRO related activity that has taken place so far at the Singapore Air Show, which started on the 20th of February and runs until the 25th. Today I'm joined by Christine Boynton, who is Aviation Week's senior editor, covering air transport in the Americas region for Aviation Week. However, this week, Christine has been covering a lot of the aftermarket related activity at the Singapore Air Show. And Christine joins me from Singapore right now, so we're both on very different time zones. Christine, thanks for joining us today.

Christine Boynton:

Happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

James Pozzi:

Excellent. Let's get started then. Maybe just to begin, before we go onto the MRO stuff, maybe just to get a picture of the environment at Singapore so far this week. I think we're on your time, day three now of the event. How was the general mood at the show and do you see a positive environment in terms of maybe orders and other activity and announcements?

Christine Boynton:

Sure, sure. So to describe the last couple of days, I would say busy, positive, and hot. But in all seriousness, there were a good number of announcements and I'd say that one of the themes I noticed this week was a theme of expansion, and whether that was to meet demand, or further build out capabilities. That was certainly something I saw again and again this week.

So to give you a couple of highlights, Spirit AeroSystems announced that it opened a new engineering design center in Subang, Malaysia. That's to meet growing demand. And with that expansion, they'll be able to accommodate 24-hour engineering services at Spirit factories around the globe. ExecuJet MRO Services, which is a subsidiary of Dassault Aviation, they're preparing to open a new and expanded MRO facility at Malaysia's Subang Airport, again, by the end of March. And that's a reflection of its growth in the region. Pratt & Whitney has expanded its Singapore based engine center, which is Eagle Services Asia, and that actually grows its GTF capacity by two thirds in the year ahead. And then Pratt & Whitney Canada announced that they're creating a new overhaul line in Singapore for its PT6C-67C engines. That's a second location for that overhaul capability complimenting an existing facility in Canada.

James Pozzi:

Oh yeah, okay. Yeah. So a lot of announcements there as you've just run through, and we'll look into some of those a little bit later in more detail perhaps. Just starting then on to the MRO activity, which sounds pretty buoyant. Maybe start with some of the airframe stuff, of course. Air shows often generate a lot of orders, and with that obviously comes various aftermarket and services agreements. But what would you say have been some of the major announcements so far, maybe from OEMs or MRO providers related to the airframe maintenance side of things?

Christine Boynton:

Sure, sure. So Scoot, which is an LCC based here in Singapore, they're awaiting delivery of their first Embraer E190-E2. So that's scheduled to begin. Those deliveries are scheduled to begin this spring. In the meantime, they've signed a contract with Embraer for its collaborative inventory planning solution.

It's actually the first customer for its ECIP in this region. That'll help to optimize their expendable spare parts inventory levels and the contract covers all nine of those incoming E2s. SIA engineering and Thales are also evaluating a collaboration in this region. Specifically, they're exploring the possibility of working together in areas such as component MRO and repair services. And this is kind of a very first step in seeing how they might leverage their complimentary capabilities. ST Engineering, which of course has a huge presence at the show, also had several announcements. That includes an extension of its partnership with Honeywell for components, services, and repair. And a new five-year agreement with PT Lion Group for CFM 56-7B engine maintenance, which that might be a good segue to talk about more engines.

James Pozzi:

Absolutely, yeah. Get onto the engines, of course. You mentioned at the beginning about Pratt & Whitney who have been very active, one of the OEMs, as they often are at these shows. But perhaps let's start with Pratt & Whitney and look at some of the other engine OEMs activity as well. So maybe some of the Pratt & Whitney stuff to begin.

Christine Boynton:

Sure. So Pratt & Whitney had a real flurry of announcements this week. I don't know that we have time to touch on all of them, so I'll just, again, give you a few highlights here. So three airlines chose their engine wise comprehensive service plan for GTF maintenance support, and that was kind of bam, bam, bam, all in a row. That's Cebu Pacific Air, JetSmart, and VietJet Air. And that came as all three of those airlines chose GTFs for incoming A320neo family aircraft.

JetSmart has also concluded a support package with the engine OEM for inspections of those GTF engines. That's one of the things they noted there. And Pratt is also ramping up the industrialization of repairs for certain GTF components across its Singapore based MRO facilities. And this is maybe a little off-topic, but maybe kind of a fun fact. This show marked the first time that Pratt really introduced the RTX brand in this region. So part of what they were doing at the show, maybe a little bit more behind the scenes, but it was really introducing the RTX brand to this region.

James Pozzi:

Yeah, interesting. Yeah, of course, the parent company of Pratt & Whitney. So very Pratt & Whitney heavy in terms of engine MRO activity and some very interesting developments, certainly around capacity and orders and service agreements too. So very, very interesting from our perspective, no doubt. And also just looking onto maybe other stories that we haven't included yet, was there anything else, Christine, that kind of caught your attention at Singapore in terms of announcements, or news coverage that you thought was worth sharing with us?

Christine Boynton:

Yeah, so I'm glad you asked this question. Before I kind of jump into this, throw it back to what I said at the beginning, several announcements pertaining to growth in the region, which I thought was really interesting and a really positive sign. But also, I started my week here pre-airshow. I started my week here in Singapore, a little ways away from the show, but nearby. I went out and visited Pratt & Whitney's Singapore technology accelerator. So they first announced this accelerator, if you remember, back in 2022. And its projects are focused on automation, advanced inspection, connected factory, and digital twin technologies. It's all aimed at improving MRO shop performance. So I had a chance to go speak with them, see what they've done so far. And it works out to 30 innovations achieved so far. As a

rule of thumb, they're looking for these solutions that they're developing to drive at least a 6% productivity improvement in existing processes.

So what they've got... And you've got a little bit of an overview, and I'm certainly going to send everyone to our show news app to learn more about that. But so far they've done a few things, including a shop floor simulation, digital twin, and some advanced inspection technologies. They're not done. They're working with other local companies to develop additional solutions. They're also looking to get more into predictive and intelligent automations, prepping as well to get into more of the AI space, potentially implementing that on a broad scale around kind of the 2027 timeframe. But as they're developing these innovations, they're going to be rolled out across Pratt's global MRO footprint, and that's to improve throughput and turnaround times.

So there's really a lot of interesting things underway. I had the chance to talk to Gilbert Sim, who's director of aftermarket global operations Technology. I'd love for folks to go to our show news app, watch the video we recorded together. He's got a lot of really interesting details of things that they're doing over there, and it's some really pretty interesting stuff.

James Pozzi:

Yeah, absolutely. Be sure to watch that to our listeners, that sounds very interesting indeed. And it'll be a good illustration of how technology and these emerging technologies are being used to, as Christine said, improve areas such as throughput for these engine shops.

Okay. Well thank you, Christine, for summarizing all the news you've been reporting on this week. I know there's been a lot of it, so thank you for doing that for us today and joining us on the MRO podcast.

Christine Boynton:

Absolutely. Thanks for having me. It's been a great week. So again, check out our show news app to learn more about each one of these things. I wish I could have touched on all of them, but we would've been here forever.

James Pozzi:

Thank you. Thank you everyone. And don't miss the next episode by subscribing to the MRO podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. And one last request. If you're listening in Apple Podcasts and want to support this podcast, please leave us a star rating, or write a review. Thank you.