Chris Doan, who was quoted in the Sept. 25 article “Eastern Europe To Drive Much Of Region’s MRO Growth,” is President and CEO of TeamSAI.

MTU Maintenance and Sumitomo Corp. have created two joint ventures to lease commercial aircraft engines. The first is MTU Maintenance Lease Services, of which MTU owns 80%; it will provide short- to medium-term engine leases for the independent maintenance provider's customers. The second, Sumisho Aero Engine Lease, of which Sumitomo owns 90% and MTU Aero Engines 10%, will focus on long-term engine leases that are not necessarily associated with MRO contracts with MTU.

CSA Czech Airlines Technics is looking to add ATR and Embraer to its landing gear capabilities in order to improve utilization of its facilities at Prague Airport while keeping investment low. The MRO currently is certified to maintain Boeing 737 Classic and NG landing gear.

The MRO subsidiary of Egyptair Holding is seeking to double revenue from third-party customers to 50% of total sales, and has won two contracts to help achieve that goal. From Oct. 1, Egyptair Maintenance & Overhaul will perform the line maintenance for Qatar Airways’ 28 weekly flights at Cairo International Airport, taking over from Lufthansa Technik. And starting Nov. 1, it will take care of line maintenance for the twice-daily flights of Gulf Air at the same airport.

If an airline orders more than 100 new aircraft, then two months later says that 95% of its annual maintenance and engineering contracted work is up for re-tender by 2017, the industry should take note. While EasyJet did exactly this in July and September, the news does not signal a seismic shift in its operations. Rather, the carrier is continuing to do what it does well—run a lean, low-cost operation. EasyJet considered proposals from Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier over a 20-month period, but Airbus’s final price seemed to clinch the deal.

Airbus and Copenhagen-headquartered Satair in February plan to open their first joint warehouse, a facility in Singapore. Both companies already operate their own spares and sales offices in Singapore, but this new joint facility will consolidate their operations to gain synergies and triple the number of spare parts available, Marcus Jungermann, Airbus’s vice president-material and logistics operations, tells Aviation Week on the sidelines of MRO Europe in London.

GE Aviation, expanding on an existing program, is developing a used life-limited parts (LLPs) history designation that will certify a General Electric powerplant’s most critical parts as being operated amid the most optimal configurations. Under the TRUEngine LLP program—announced yesterday in London at MRO Europe—LLPs that are maintained to the manufacturer’s standards and operated with all so-called influencing parts maintained to those standards will be stamped TRUEngine LLP-certified.

Stagnation in Europe’s airline industry will be a drag on the region’s aircraft aftermarket, which will grow slower than the world average over the next decade despite measurable expansion in Eastern Europe, forecasts revealed at Aviation Week’s MRO Europe conference.