Lufthansa Technik and MTU have decided to establish their planned overhaul joint venture for Pratt & Whitney PW1000G geared turbofans in the Polish city of Rzeszow.
The two partners say they have acquired a site in Jasionka – a suburb of Rzeszow, which is in southeast Poland – and that construction will begin in May, with the facility to be operational by 2020.
LHT and MTU have previously disclosed that the shop – branded Engine Maintenance Europe – will employ around 800 staff members and service up to 400 PW1000G-family engines a year as part of the US engine manufacturer's aftermarket support network.
Some €150 million ($186 million) is to be invested in the site.
EME Aero chief executive Derrick Siebert states: "The location in Jasionka, in Poland's 'Aviation Valley', offers us the optimum infrastructure for our new MRO company."
Both companies have already made sizeable investments in Poland. MTU – which is a shareholder in the PW1000G programme – opened a facility in Jasionka for engine development and production in 2009. The site is currently used to assemble low-pressure turbines for the geared turbofan programme.
In 2017, LHT started construction of a separate overhaul shop, jointly owned with GE Aviation, in Sroda Slaska, southwest Poland, to service GEnx-2B and GE9X engines powering Boeing 747-8s and the in-development 777X respectively. The facility is scheduled to open in 2019.
Since 2003, LHT and MTU have operated a jointly owned shop in Malaysia – Airfoil Services – which concentrates on repairing high-pressure compressor and low-pressure turbine aerofoils.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
