Lufthansa Technik and MTU Aero Engines have set up a 50-50 joint venture, EME Aero, for the maintenance, repair and overhaul of Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines.
Lufthansa Technik and MTU Aero Engines have set up a 50-50 joint venture for the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of Pratt & Whitney PW1000G geared turbofans. The name of the new JV is Engine Maintenance Europe, or EME Aero. The contract, which follows an agreement on the general principles of the cooperation signed in February 2017, was finalised by the two companies on 4th December.
EME Aero sp. z o.o. will be based in Poland and will eventually have a workforce of 800 employees. The two parties to the joint venture will invest a total of around €150m by 2020. The company will be headed up by project manager Derrick Siebert (CEO) from Lufthansa Technik and by Dr. Uwe Zachau (COO), his counterpart at MTU Aero Engines.
The facility is slated to be up and running in 2020. The planned annual capacity is over 400 shop visits of PW1000G-series geared turbofans, which constitute one of the two engine options on the the Airbus A320neo, as well as equipping the Airbus/Bombardier C Series, Embraer's E-Jets E2 family and the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ).
MTU already has a Polish subsidiary, MTU Aero Engines Polska, which opened shop in 2009. The facility, based in Rzeszów, carries out development and production activities and is responsible for the assembly of the low-pressure turbine for PW1000G-series engines.
For Lufthansa Technik, the new JV is the second big move in stepping up its activities in Poland. In September 2017, the foundation stone was laid in Sroda Slaska for its joint venture company with engine manufacturer GE Aviation that will overhaul GEnx-2B engines and, later on, GE9X engines.
Lufthansa Technik has many years of experience maintaining Pratt & Whitney engines and has been a member of the MRO network for the U.S. engine maker's geared turbofan (GTF) since July 2016.
Lufthansa Technik and MTU have been partners in a 50-50 joint venture in Malaysia since 2003. Airfoil Services Sdn. Bhd. (ASSB) near Kuala Lumpur specializes in the repair of low-pressure turbine and high-pressure compressor airfoils.