Lufthansa Technik Pushes For More Next-Gen Engine Repair Breakthroughs

HAMBURG—Repair developments for new-generation engine programs will be key drivers of cutting material demand across Lufthansa Technik’s global engine operations and the wider industry, two senior figures at the German MRO giant said.

In a keynote at Aviation Week’s AeroEngines Europe in Hamburg on Sept. 9, Derrick Siebert, VP Engine Services Operation, Lufthansa Technik and Georg Fanta, VP Commercial Engine Services, Lufthansa Technik, said the company is already a strong supplier of repairs but would like to see the market open on a broader scale to encompass restricted repair development on newer engine types.

“I would love to do everything [repairs] in-house but we can’t do all that ourselves,” Siebert said. “We need more availability of repairs for the customers to reduce the cost and having the possibility to send parts for repair rather than just replacing them.”

Siebert said there must be more cross-industry collaboration to achieve this. “We all need to put our wits together and speed up repair availabilities especially on the newer engine types. This is something well established with legacy engines, but we need to see much more from the new engine types and the industry.”

With the industry currently in a sustained period of ramp ups to meet high demand volumes, Fanta said the company has placed an emphasis on factors such as talent recruitment and capability developments. He cited the company’s upcoming facility near Porto, Portugal, as an example of bringing new skilled labor and capabilities online, which can ultimately lead to aiding heavier repairs at its main base in Hamburg, where it repairs CFM56-5A/5B/5C/7B, Leap-1A and -1B and V2500 engine types.

The Porto facility will focus on aircraft and engine parts repairs and is set to open by the end of 2027 and will employ more than 700 people once operational. “We are getting new talent pools in the region and in addition, we can deepen our repair knowledge, our repair capability in order to more repair and create more value on the actual overhaul,” Fanta said. He also cites an upcoming Leap-1B repair station in Calgary, Canada, which will also house an engine test cell, as an example of expanding both its talent pool and capabilities. The Canadian facility is also scheduled to open in 2027.

Siebert said strong and sustained market demand creates a lot of maintenance pipelines but to facilitate this work, MROs are ramping up heavily. “We have facilities online for the new fuel saving engine types, but at the same time, we are facing delays on the deliveries and even the legacy products are longer in the market than we would have expected. Global capacities are needed to provide the output on the new engine types,” he said, adding that LHT leans on its global network of shops and joint ventures. Highlighting this demand, LHT reached an engine milestone this week after inducting its 100th Leap engine in Hamburg. The quick turn shop visit was conducted on a Leap-1B engine operated by Brazilian airline GOL Linhas Aéreas.

The maintenance provider has focused heavily on in-shop performance in recent years and as a result, Siebert said it has seen improvements in engine turnaround times and further reducing them will be the next challenge LHT faces. “Tomorrow the customers will not expect or accept engines with 150 to 200 days TAT. They will want us to come back to TATs well below 100 days,” he said.

LHT also sees more scope for PMA parts usage in its operations, albeit more so on legacy engine types and has developed PMAs on engines such as the V2500. “We do see on the new engine types that this is quite restricted, albeit not totally so—we still do joint development repairs,” Siebert said. He added that acceptance from airlines and particularly lessors—long resistant to DER repairs—will be big drivers of opening up these repairs.