MTU Maintenance, the global market leader in customized maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) solutions for aero engines, has completed its 5,000th shop visit at its Zhuhai location. MTU Maintenance Zhuhai is a 50/50 joint venture between China Southern Airlines Ltd. and MTU Aero Engines. The location celebrated it with the entire staff.

"We are sincerely delighted to achieve this milestone." says Li Xin, General Manager of China Southern Technics and Chairman of MTU Maintenance Zhuhai. "This is not only a landmark achievement of the cooperation between both shareholders, but also an important step for China Southern Airlines in implementing its maintenance industrialization strategy. In the future, China Southern Airlines will continue to support MTU Maintenance Zhuhai in building a world-class engine maintenance brand, providing better quality and shorter turnaround times for China Southern fleet's maintenance, contributing to the green and low-carbon transformation of civil aviation and the high-quality development of the aviation industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, while also offering excellent MRO services to global customers."

"The partnership between China Southern Airlines and MTU Aero Engines has created one of the most successful aerospace joint ventures in China and an extremely efficient narrowbody engine MRO facility that is well on track to becoming the largest of its type in the world," adds Michael Schreyögg, Chief Program Officer at MTU Aero Engines. "We are very proud of this achievement, their excellent turnaround times as well as their continued drive for safety, quality and operational excellence. I would like to thank our worldwide customers, our great staff and our partner China Southern Airlines for their commitment and trust."

MTU's team in China was able to reduce the time interval for an additional thousand shop visits yet again. It took the MRO facility less than two years to get from 4,000 to 5,000 shop visits. In comparison, reaching the previous mark took nearly three years. The main drivers behind the increase in efficiency and effectiveness are: centrally organized employee education at Zhuhai's training center resulting in additional highly-skilled engine experts; continuous improvement of procedures as well as digitalization of processes; and, a boost to the location's capacities with the opening of the Jinwan facility earlier this year.

"Reaching this milestone is only the beginning of MTU Maintenance Zhuhai's next phase," Gert Wagner, MTU Maintenance Zhuhai's CEO, explains. "We are already one of the biggest MRO facilities for the CFM56, LEAP, PW1100G-JM and V2500 engines on the global market. Now, we can refocus on our future goals, and with this team as well as the production improvements, there is no doubt, we will achieve increasingly more milestones."

In recent years, and leading up to the inauguration of the secondary site in neighboring Jinwan last spring, MTU Maintenance Zhuhai's vision had been to be the world's biggest MRO service provider for narrowbody engines. Since opening the secondary MRO site, a further vision for MTU's presence in China was announced: To be the customer's best choice for narrowbody engines.