Rolls-Royce is plotting a major recruitment drive to attract airlines to its "power-by-the-hour" engine maintenance schemes.
Some 45% of its R-R's production engines and 52 airlines are already covered by some form of Total Care or Fleet Hour maintenance plan, according to Mike Terrett, president, civil aerospace. "It is a strategic differentiation for us. The target is to grow our Total Care business significantly above what we have today," he says.
Around 40% of the Trent fleet is under the wing of these Rolls-Royce plans, while the number for the AE 3007, which powers business and regional jet aircraft, stands at 83%. The deals see Rolls-Royce maintaining and overhauling engines at its own shops, with carriers paying an agreed rate per flying hour.
"Total Care aligns our interests with those of our customers. It is all about working to make the engine stay on wing – what is good for them is good for us," says Terrett. "It also fits with our ethos of not competing with our customers but co-operating with them."
Rolls-Royce is expanding this product into its corporate engine fleet, and 25% of its powerplants are covered so far, he says. Expansion in this market, which is growing in terms of engine sales at 12% per year, is only governed by the rate at which the manufacturer can sign up customers. It has 4,000 engines operating in the corporate jet market.
Source: Flight Daily News
