"The market is back". That's how Anne Brachet, CEO of AFI-KLM E&M began the traditional press briefing held by the Air France-KLM group's MRO division at the 54th edition of the Paris Air Show. She began with a brief overview of the maintenance contracts unveiled during the show. 

A very strong recovery

First up was JetBlue, which announced a contract to support more than 200 pieces of equipment for its future fleet of Airbus A220s. The American carrier has ordered one hundred examples of the new-generation medium-haul aircraft from Airbus, which will eventually replace its fleet of Embraer 190s. Air Austral, a long-standing AFI KLM E&M customer, has also signed a contract with EPCOR (a 100% subsidiary of AFI KLM E&M) for the maintenance of the APUs powering its medium-haul fleet of three Airbus A220s. Meanwhile, China's largest cargo airline, SF Airlines, has announced an agreement for workshop visits to restore the performance of seven CF6-80C2 engines. Meanwhile, CMA CGM AIR CARGO has announced that it has selected AFI KLM E&M to provide engine and equipment support for the two Boeing 777Fs recently added to its cargo fleet. AFI KLM E&M will also provide equipment support for CMA CGM AIR CARGO's four Airbus A330Fs. Finally, AFI KLM E&M and Philippine Airlines have announced a new support agreement for 32 CFM56-5B engines powering the Philippine airline's Airbus A320ceo fleet. Air France-KLM's cargo division was also delighted with the latest contracts signed with some twenty airlines (including Air Premia, Norse Atlantic Airways, Akasa Air, ITA Airways, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa).

It is therefore understandable that AFI KLM E&M speaks of a "strong upturn in activity ". Nevertheless, it deplores certain supply chain difficulties, as well as higher prices or supply difficulties for certain raw materials, particularly titanium, notably due to the war in Ukraine.

Prognos is still gaining momentum 

To get back on track, AFI KLM E&M plans to recruit more than 1,000 people over the next three years for all its geographical areas of activity, for all its types of business and at all levels of activity. This upturn is all the more significant in that it follows a year 2022 which had already seen the hiring of 400 people at Air France Industries and 200 people at KLM E&M. " Fortunately, we have been able to alleviate our manpower shortages thanks in particular to Prognos, our predictive maintenance tool, which has enabled us to optimize our activity and our intervention schedules " explains Géry Mortreux, General Manager of Air France Industries. It should be noted that Prognos now includes new platforms such as the Airbus A220, and in 2022 enabled the monitoring of more than 1,300 engines and 1,200 APUs.

The strong upturn in activity should also have an impact on the quality of the financial performance of the Air France-KLM group's cargo division. In 2022, it achieved sales of 3.6 billion euros. " We should return to our pre-crisis sales of 4.2 billion euros by 2024 " predicts Anne Brachet, CEO of AFI KLM E&M.