Safran Gears Up For Surge In Leap Parts Repair Demand

BRUSSELS—As the CFM Leap engine fleet grows and its manufacturers GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines form a network of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) sites, Safran is creating capacity for parts repair.

Close to 4,000 Leap-equipped aircraft are in service and that number will double by 2030, according to Safran. While the company intends to put in place most of its facilities for engine shop visits between 2025-28, it anticipates demand for parts repair to grow slightly later. Expanding the parts repair network will continue after 2030, Nicolas Potier, Safran Aircraft Engines EVP for customer support, services and MRO, said Oct. 29 during a visit to the Safran Aircraft Engines Services Brussels facility. The scope of repairs widens as the engine matures and engineers have to perform maintenance work in a growing portion of the engine, he said.

“The more we can repair parts, as opposed to replacing them with new parts, the more competitive we are in maintenance operations,” he said. “Therefore, we need to build a parts repair network, in parallel to an engine maintenance network ... Our strategy is for each family of component to have repair sources in three regions: the Americas, Asia-Pacific and, third, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.”

Potier thus echoed Safran CEO Olivier Andries, who said during an Oct. 25 analyst call, “We have decided to be a strong player in repair capabilities.” Safran is developing more than 250 repair processes per year.

To start with, Safran is building on existing CFM 56 repair capabilities. Safran sites in Chatellerault, France, and Queretaro, Mexico, are thus expanding their skills to the Leap engine. Two joint ventures are adding Leap repair know-how, too: Ceramic Coating Center with MTU Aero Engines, in Chatellerault and PTI with GE in Miramar, Florida.

Leap production sites will add repair expertise. That will be the case for composite fan blades in Commercy, France, and Queretaro. In addition, Safran’s plan to open a turbine blade manufacturing site in Rennes, France, in 2027 now has a parts repair dimension. The company anticipates a capacity of 36,000 repaired parts per year.

In Mentor, Ohio, Safran is in the process of taking over Component Repair Technologies. The company specializes in casing repairs and Safran expects the acquisition to close by year-end.