Engine repairs set to speed up, says CFM

Availability of CFM International’s aircraft engines will increase by up to 30% next year, the company said, at a time low-fare airline Go First has filed for insolvency citing engine scarcity, and other Indian airlines struggle to add capacity due to supply chain issues

- Anu Sharma

“The MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) turnaround times are way higher than they used to be before covid. It is true on the CFM network, but it is also true on the whole industry. Basically, what happened is during covid, industry has lost a lot of specialized qualified people," president Gaël Méheust said in an interview.

CFM, which supplies engines to Indian airlines such as IndiGo, Air India, Akasa, and Vistara, said it has started hiring people and expanding engine MRO facilities.

“We are monitoring performance on a daily/weekly basis. All these steps will take time. We are foreseeing year-on-year improvement of 20-30% from now to next year. But it will take time before we are able to really come down to where we were before covid, but we are working hard on that," Méheust added.