ATLANTA—Earlier this year, Pratt & Whitney said it wanted to increase geared turbofan (GTF) maintenance output in 2025 by 30%, and now it is clear how it will do that.
At Aviation Week Network’s MRO Americas event, Pratt & Whitney announced deals with two of its GTF MRO network partners—Delta TechOps and MTU Aero Engines—on April 8 to expand overhaul capacity.
Delta TechOps will focus on expanding its PW1500 overhaul output up to 450 engines annually, which is an increase of more than 30%, over the next decade. The PW1500 powers the Airbus A220. It also maintains the PW1100-JM engine, which powers Delta Air Lines’ A320neo fleet. Combined, Delta flies more than 140 GTF-powered aircraft.
Delta TechOps opened a dedicated 155,000-ft.2 GTF engine facility at its Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport base in 2023. It joined the GTF network in 2019 and inducted its first PW1100G-JM engine in 2020 and its first PW1500G in 2023.
In addition, MTU will expand its MRO capacity to up to 600 GTF shop visits annually. This is across all geared turbofan models.
MTU joined the GTF MRO network in 2015. It inducted its first PW1100G-JM engine in 2016 and just completed its 1,000th shop visit.
Through its 50/50 joint venture with Lufthansa Technik, MTU is also ramping up GTF maintenance capacity at EME Aero. That engine shop in Poland has completed more than 500 shop visits on PW1100G-JM, PW1500G and PW1900G engines and should finish a second test cell for that engine family later this year.
A joint venture between MTU and China Southern Airlines—MTU Maintenance Zhuhai—inducted its first PW1100G-JM engine earlier this year and expects to ramp up to 260 engines annually.
MTU manufactures several parts for the GTF engine family, including the high-speed, low-pressure turbine and the first four stages of the high-pressure compressor.
Pratt & Whitney’s GTF MRO network “brings together some of the best names in MRO under one umbrella,” says Kevin Kirkpatrick, vice president of aftermarket operations. “We can go tap on their door, whether it’s for technology or capacity or capabilities, and bring that to bear for our customers.”
It added a new partner in February, when it announced plans to open a GTF engine MRO facility with Sanad in Abu Dhabi. The facility at Al Ain Aerospace Park is expected to accommodate 350 GTF engine shop visits annually and open in 2028.
The engine OEM also has expanded GTF MRO capacity in the last few years at OGMA in Portugal, SR Technics in Zurich, joint venture Eagle Services Asia in Singapore and its own facilities in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Christchurch Engine Center, in New Zealand.
In addition to expanded capacity, the engine OEM also unveiled a new additive manufacturing repair for a GTF structural case on April 8. Pratt expects that to reduce repair time by 60%.
Pratt & Whitney’s North American Technology Accelerator developed the repair, and the OEM is now working to industrialize it. Kirkpatrick says the repair involves cutting off the damaged part and rebuilding it through directed energy deposition.
Pratt estimates additive repairs could save about $100 million worth of parts over five years. “We also will be able to use lessons learned from that and apply it to other parts and continue that acceleration into additive manufacturing,” Kirkpatrick says. He says the repair will start at its PSD operation in Arkansas, which repairs cases.
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