Aircelle Europe doubles its MRO capacity for jet engine nacelles

Aircelle (Safran) inaugurated a new building for its Aircelle Europe Services business at Pont-Audemer in the Normandy region of France, doubling the operation’s capacity to perform maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) on jet engine nacelle hardware.

The additional 4,500 square meter structure – which is located adjacent to Aircelle Europe Services’ existing 3,000 square meter facility – provides additional area for the specialized jigs, tooling and other material utilized in MRO activity.

This enables Aircelle Europe Services to accommodate its growing volume of maintenance, repair and overhaul work on Aircelle’s existing family of engine nacelles and thrust reversers; creates capacity for new nacelle products now in development and production at Aircelle; and opens the possibility to process equipment from other manufacturers.

Aircelle Europe Services is capable of handling all of the nacelles and thrust reversers in Aircelle’s portfolio, which are used on engines that power some 20 different aircraft types – from business jets and regional airliners to the world’s largest passenger jetliners. Through its relationship to Aircelle as the original designer and manufacturer of this hardware, Aircelle Europe Services benefits from its parent company’s unique knowledge and capabilities in performing all types of repair, maintenance and overhaul tasks.

“The workload of Aircelle Europe Services’ MRO activity has grown considerably since the company’s creation in 2002, and this new facility provides additional volume needed to handle our current thrust reverser and nacelle products, while also opening capacity for the new nacelles from Aircelle’s program wins in recent years, in particular on A320neo and A330neo” said Aircelle Chairman and CEO Martin Sion.

Aircelle Europe Services is at the center of Aircelle’s global maintenance, repair and overhaul network, which also includes the Aerostructures Middle East Services (AMES) joint venture with AFI KLM E&M in Dubai; as well as partnerships with SIA Engineering Company (SIAEC) in Singapore, the Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company (HAECO) in Hong Kong, and Applied Composites Engineering (ACE) in the United States.