MTU Maintenance, the global market leader in customized maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) solutions for aero engines, has completed its 4000th shop visit at its Zhuhai location. This sets yet another milestone for 2023, after the official opening of a brand-new test cell last month.

MTU Maintenance redelivered a LEAP-1A engine, a product of CFM International, a 50/50 joint company between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines, to Peach Aviation Ltd., a subsidiary of All Nippon Airways, Japan’s largest airline. MTU Maintenance and Peach Aviation have been working together for almost a decade, dating back to the initial CFM56-5B contract in 2014. Last year, they signed a five-year contract extension that includes the new generation of CFM International engines.

Tomotaka Mikuni, Executive Vice President of Engineering and Maintenance at Peach Aviation, congratulates MTU Maintenance Zhuhai for the outstanding achievement of 4,000 completed shop visits and added that Peach is looking forward to a long-term cooperation together. “MTU Maintenance is an important partner for Peach because it listens to the voice of customers carefully,” Mikuni says. “MTU Maintenance works together with us to come up with highly customized and tailored maintenance support for Peach.” Peach Aviation was founded in 2011 has a fleet of 33 aircraft that covers roughly 50 routes across Japan as well as short- and medium haul international routes.

Gert Wagner, President and CEO at MTU Maintenance Zhuhai, says he is proud of the location’s progress over the years and that it was able to cut down the intervals between 1,000 additional shop visits by a year each time. Driven by China’s rapidly growing market demand and MTU’s success in attracting customers from all over the world, it took the MRO facility less than three years to get from 3,000 to 4,000 shop visits, despite the pandemic. In comparison, reaching the previous mark took four years.

“This steady acceleration from one milestone to the next shows how our drive to continually grow the business pays off,” Wagner says, adding that the engine induction volume in Zhuhai is well ahead of pre-Covid levels. “It acts as a great motivating factor to the team here in China to reach the maximum capacity of 450 shop visits this year and I want to thank our employees for driving us forward.”

MTU Maintenance Zhuhai services CFM56, LEAP, PW1100G-JM and V2500 engines and performs MRO for over 90 customers from China, Asia and around the world. The Chinese location is situated in the Zhuhai Free Trade Zone and well on its way to become the world’s largest engine MRO facility, with a secondary site under construction. The planned start to operations is in 2025, increasing MRO capacity by another 260 shop visits a year.