GE Aviation and Lufthansa Technik have formally opened a jointly owned Polish overhaul centre for GEnx-2B and GE9X engines.
The XEOS centre, located in Sroda Slaska near Wroclaw, inducted its first engine in April and is set to service around 20 powerplants this year, LHT says.
Scheduled to be fully operational in 2023, the facility will have capacity to repair more than 200 engines a year and will “ultimately” employ about 600 people, or twice as many as today, adds the German MRO provider.
GEnx-2B and GE9x engines are the sole powerplants available for the Boeing 747-8 and in-development 777X respectively.
Lufthansa has 19 747-8s in service and 20 777-9s on order, Cirium fleets data shows.
Citing the company’s history of engine support capabilities, LHT chief executive Johannes Bussmann states that the new facility represents “a cornerstone for our long-term growth strategy to offer comprehensive MRO services also for the latest generations of aircraft engines”.
Jean Lydon-Rodgers, chief executive of GE Aviation’s services division, describes XEOS as a “unique collaboration” with LHT.
The MRO provider holds a 51% stake in XEOS, and GE the rest.
Current operations at the site include a training centre. Construction of an engine test cell is under way as part of a second phase, LHT says.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
