Air France-KLM's maintenance division has won an engine MRO contract from SunExpress, the leisure joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines.
Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance's overhaul shop in Amsterdam will service General Electric CF6-80E1 engines that power SunExpress Germany's Airbus A330s, AFI KLM E&M says.
It adds that the Frankfurt-based carrier has signed a long-term, hour-based agreement for the engines' support.
SunExpress mainly operates a Boeing 737-800 fleet. But its German branch introduced A330-200s in 2015 in order to be wet-leased to Lufthansa budget subsidiary Eurowings for that carrier's newly launched long-haul operation.
Flightglobal's Fleets Analyzer database shows that SunExpress Germany has four A330s, with plans to add another two later this year and a seventh in 2017 as part of Eurowings' initial long-haul development phase.
GECAS owns three of the in-service aircraft and manages the lease for the fourth.
Turkish Technic services the CF6-80E1 engines of its parent's A330 fleet, but Lufthansa Technik does not list that variant among the engines it supports. The German carrier's A330s are powered by Trent 700s.
AFI KLM E&M says that a combination of "competitive contract pricing… and operational experience" – as a result of Air France and KLM having CF6-powered A330s – were primary reasons for SunExpress to select the Franco-Dutch MRO group.
"We will do our utmost to demonstrate to this dynamic, young airline that we are worthy of their trust," says the MRO's vice-president sales Europe and key accounts Romain Helmer.
The deal is the first engine MRO co-operation between the two sides.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
