MTU Maintenance Canada has completed the 1,500th shop visit of its operational history, marking the occasion with the redelivery of a V2500-A5 engine operated by Spirit Airlines.

Founded in 1998, the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) location on the outskirts of Vancouver has had a varied portfolio of commercial legacy engines as well as their military variations. International Aero Engines' V2500, in particular, has become a centrepiece of MTU Maintenance Canada's service provisions, specifically the –A5 model, as well as its –E5 military variant, on which the location has worldwide exclusivity and works on the behalf of the engine OEM. The location has inducted more than 300 shop visits since the V2500 program's introduction in 2017. Uwe Zachau, the company's CEO and President, says that the broad expertise of the Canadian team with respect to legacy engines is at the root of this historic milestone.

"At MTU Maintenance Canada, we have seen some of the most popular engines in aviation history and the collective competence amassed over the last decades drives our success forward," Zachau says. "I want to thank our engine experts for bringing their very best every day and to Spirit Airlines for entrusting their engines with MTU."

Spirit Airlines, one of the largest low-fare airlines in the United States and the country's seventh largest airline overall, has been an MTU customer since 2019. Tinashe Chigumira, Program Manager of Powerplant Operations at Spirit Airlines, shares that it gives her peace of mind knowing that the carrier's assets are in such skilled hands.

"MTU is a true industry leader and trusted around the world thanks to its vast know-how and customer-focused approach to MRO," said Chigumira. "It is great to have them in such proximity to our operations and we congratulate them on achieving this historic mark."

In addition to the facility located in Delta, British Columbia, the V2500 engine is part of MTU's MRO portfolios in Hannover, Germany, and Zhuhai, China. Beside that model, MTU Maintenance Canada specializes in engine MRO of GE Aerospace's CF6-80 and its F138 military variant. It also serves as the MTU network's center of excellence for the repair of line replaceable units (LRU) such as pumps, actuators, cables and harnesses for a variety of engines, including GE90-110/115B, CFM56 and LEAP. There are currently over 550 engine experts employed at the Canadian facility, conducting more than 90 shop visits a year. In September last year, MTU Maintenance Canada opened a new training academy for future engine mechanics in collaboration with the British Columbia Institute of Technology.