We are all completely focussed on the challenge of fixing the Trent 1000 fleet for our airline customers who are facing disruption. I’m responsible for ramping up capacity to meet the campaign demands across our service network, which gives us extra facilities, tooling and people so we can fix engines quicker and return them to service.
A key part of this has been forging new partnerships around the world, looking beyond our own service network. We’ve worked quickly to train mechanics and engineers and provide them with the support and equipment they need. For me this has involved intensive discussions with partners around the world as well as our regional teams, so I’m often on calls at strange hours. Our regional teams have worked hand-in-hand with them, often at our partners’ facilities.
I’ve been really impressed with how partners have worked at such pace. We’ve been able to draw on the skills and expertise of partners such as Delta TechOps, a Trent Authorised Maintenance Centre based in Atlanta, Georgia. They’ve been repairing Trent 1000 engines since the beginning of 2019, and have reduced the turnaround time on every engine, getting them back on wing sooner. It was a huge challenge but the team were really flexible – accelerating new facilities, training staff and managing logistics. Other engine programmes such as the Trent 7000 and Trent XWB will also benefit from their skills and expertise.
We’ve learnt a lot and are using this to speed up turnaround times even further and cement partnerships quicker. This is at the forefront of our mind and drives us to fix the fleet and get the engines back into service as quickly as we possibly can. We want to get this fixed and return every engine to service.