Aerolineas Argentinas is setting up an engine shop as part of a maintenance agreement with Lufthansa Technik covering Airbus A340 powerplants.
Lufthansa Technik has been awarded an exclusive five-year contract to service the CFM International CFM56-5C engines powering the South American carrier's A340-300 fleet.
While component repairs and overhauls will be completed at the maintenance provider's headquarters in Germany, Aerolineas Argentinas will establish a shop to disassemble engine to module level as part of the co-operation. Engines will also reassembled at the Buenos Aires site, though full details have yet to be finalised, says the MRO group.
Maintenance of the legacy engines will be individually customised to maximise the service life of the existing equipment. The programme in question – dubbed "SmartLife" – is targeted at engines close to the end of their service lives and could involve, for example, reassembling a serviceable powerplant from two defective engines, the MRO group's website indicates.
Aerolineas Argentinas has seven in-service A340-300s, but also four A340-200s in storage, Flightglobal's Ascend Fleets database shows. Most of the aircraft were manufactured between 1994 and 1997, but one of the A340-300s was built in 2000.
Lufthansa Technik is servicing the CFM56 engines of Aerolineas Argentinas' Boeing 737 fleet, and the General Electric CF34s powering sister carrier Austral 's Embraer 190 regional jets.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
