MOSCOW—S7 Technics, one of Russia’s largest MRO providers, will expand its maintenance capabilities for Western-made engines.
The company will build a new facility at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) that will be the first in Russia to overhaul CFM International CFM56-5B/7B engines, which are installed on the popular Airbus A320ceo and Boeing 737NG narrowbody aircraft.
S7 Technics will start overhauling the engines at SVO in mid-2022, S7’s chief engineer Leonid Shoshin said at the Air Finance and Lease conference in Moscow in June.
Before this, the facility will start by overhauling Western-made auxiliary power units: first, the Honeywell 131-9A/9B, from the fourth quarter of 2021, and then the RE220 in 2022. The 131-9A/9B APUs are installed on Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s, while the RE220s are fitted on the Russian Sukhoi SSJ-100 regional jets.
S7 Technics reports that construction of the Honeywell APU repair facility is 85% complete. “The new S7 Technics production site will allow airlines from Russia and CIS to achieve the time and cost savings, as they will not need to send the Honeywell APU for repairs abroad,” said Nikita Babkin, S7 Technics’ director of sales and business development for powerplant repairs.
Operation of the new MRO facility will be carried out under S7 Technics’ EASA Part 145 certification.
Babkin explained to Aviation Week that the new facility will be able to overhaul 42 CFM56 engines annually as well as up to 100 APUs. S7 Techics targets the Russian market, where about 800 CFM56-5B/7B are operated at the moment.
“The capacity of our facility will allow us to take third-party orders from the first day,” Babkin said. “We hope that the parent airline [S7 Airlines] will be one of our first clients.”
S7 Airlines’ CFM56-powered fleet includes 18 A320ceos, eight A321ceos and 21 Boeing 737NGs, but it is being quickly renewed with A320neo aircraft.
S7 Technics launched CFM56 maintenance in 2016 with the help of Swiss-based SR Technics, making it a first to offer the service in Russia. It now has two facilities—at Moscow Domodedovo Airport (DME) and Mineralnye Vody Airport (MRV)—that provide the type’s light repair. Both facilities will continue to repair the engine, Babkin said, but “the Domodedovo base will be also used for staff training as its employees have the largest experience in maintenance of the Western-made engines.”
As Russian airlines switch to new types like the Airbus A320neo and potentially the Boeing 737 MAX and Irkut MC-21, S7 Technics is looking to master next-generation engine maintenance. Babkin thinks this may happen in five to seven years.
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