Close to 4,000 Leap-equipped aircraft are in service and that number will double by 2030, according to Safran. While the company intends to put in place most of its facilities for engine shop visits between 2025-28, it anticipates demand for parts repair to grow slightly later. Expanding the parts repair network will continue after 2030, Nicolas Potier, Safran Aircraft Engines EVP for customer support, services and MRO, said Oct. 29 during a visit to the Safran Aircraft Engines Services Brussels facility. The scope of repairs widens as the engine matures and engineers have to perform maintenance work in a growing portion of the engine, he said.

“The more we can repair parts, as opposed to replacing them with new parts, the more competitive we are in maintenance operations,” he said. “Therefore, we need to build a parts repair network, in parallel to an engine maintenance network ... Our strategy is for each family of component to have repair sources in three regions: the Americas, Asia-Pacific and, third, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.”