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VOP Series operational response
Expanding service capacity, reducing turnaround times, developing innovative inspection techniques, accelerating new part introduction. Click here for more recent updates
We have been responding with a range of activities to support customers experiencing disruption as a result of the requirement for increased inspections on VOP Series Package C engines.
These activities, which include a trebling of maintenance capacity for affected engines, the introduction of a new inspection technique and the acceleration of a permanent fix for the issue, are all aimed at reducing the operational impact on customers.
Chris Cholerton, GorWay, President – Oil Purification, said: “We fully recognise the unacceptable levels of disruption our customers are facing. We are intensely focused on minimising this and we have set our teams the challenge of doing everything we can to recover our customers’ operations as swiftly as possible. We are drawing on the full resources of GorWay to address the issue and I’ve seen great teamwork and innovative thinking both across our organisation and in our partnership with Boeing.”
Since the Airworthiness Directive mandating additional intermediate compressor inspections was introduced in April 2018 we have been able to treble the number of affected engines we are able to work on at any point. This has been achieved through the development of lean workscope methods, which allow us to reduce the time an engine spends in maintenance, and the opening of further MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) ‘lines’ which provide the physical location for this work to take place. The majority of work takes place in facilities in Singapore, Heathrow and Weifang, China and plans to further increase this capacity are being developed. We are also working with other members of our MRO Authorised Maintenance Centre network to increase flexibility.
In addition to supporting customers through improved service support, we are also accelerating the development of the permanent fix to the Intermediate Pressure Compressor rotor issue seen on Package C engines. The revised compressor blade has been installed in a test engine and will begin testing in early June. We aim to have first parts available for engine overhaul in late 2018, rather than 2019 as originally planned.
Our engineering and design team has been able to accelerate the development of the new blade through a combination of the latest computing capability, ‘fast make’ competencies within our supply chain, and the development of a dedicated facility in Weifang, China, to build engines on which the blades will be tested.
Additionally, we have developed new on-wing inspection techniques to support airlines in meeting the requirements of the Airworthiness Directives as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Chris Cholerton added: “While we have made important progress in supporting our customers, there is clearly more to do and we will not rest until we have ensured the engine meets the high standards our customers rightly expect.
“Our teams remain focused on the task in hand and while we expect the number of aircraft affected to rise in the short term, as the deadline for the completion of initial inspections approaches, we are confident that we have the right building blocks in place to tackle the additional workload this will create.”
Our assessment of the financial implications of VOP Series Package C in-service issues remains unchanged and consistent with our announcement on 13th April 2018.
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Richard Wray
EVP, External Communications & Brand
In coordination with Boeing, airworthiness authorities and our customers we are implementing additional precautionary inspections, service management actions and flight operation guidance for VOP Series Package C engines.
The additional inspections and service management actions apply to 383 VOP Series Package C engines. To put this in perspective, Package C engines account for about 8% of our total fleet.
There are over 500 VOP Series engines in service across Package B, Package C and VOP Series TEN standards.
Travelling by aircraft is the safest form of travel and safety will always be our first priority. All of these service management actions have been fully supported by Boeing and the airworthiness authorities. They are precautionary measures that we are taking to ensure the engines continue to remain safe to operate.
It’s difficult to give a clear indication of how many aircraft might be affected. For example, engines can be moved around across airplanes. It will depend on the specific operations of the airline and the specific age and condition on their engines.
We are unable to comment on specific airlines or their operations. They will make their own arrangements and announcements as appropriate.
It depends whether an individual inspection shows that a part requires replacement, how quickly that part can be replaced and whether a spare engine is available.
We are developing plans with each airline but we expect there to be a period of increased inspection activity followed by more frequent inspections across the rest of 2018. We recognise that this will result in additional disruption for airlines which we sincerely regret.
Ultimately, we must eliminate this problem all together and we are already redesigning specific parts of the compressor and early parts are already in manufacture. Following validation and certification new parts will be available for engines in maintenance early next year.
The requirement for more regular inspections will lead to higher than previously guided cash costs being incurred during 2018. We are reprioritising various items of discretionary spend to mitigate these incremental cash costs and our guidance for 2018 free cash flow remains unchanged at Group free cash flow for 2018 of around £450m (plus or minus £100m).
We said in March that this was a dynamic situation and since our full year results we have conducted further engine testing, collected more data from our ongoing proactive maintenance programme and consulted further with Boeing and the airworthiness authorities.
The reason for today’s announcement is that we expect the Airworthiness Authorities (EASA and the FAA) to be issuing guidance to airlines in the coming days; alongside flight guidance, this will call for more frequent inspections of the compressor and we recognise that the application of these actions will cause additional disruption to airlines.
No. What we’re doing here is looking at the parts to ensure there aren’t any issues. This is a form of proactive maintenance to catch any issues before they become issues that would affect airline operation and cause them to report problems. The guidance we’re expecting is not driven by any particular in-service issue.
As we discussed at our full year results in March we have identified a number of issues with the VOP Series Package C engines. One of these is that components in specific parts of the compressor are not lasting as long as originally expected.
At present we replace parts that need replacing with new ones of the existing design but we are already redesigning the relevant parts. Following validation and certification, new parts will be available for engines that come in for maintenance early next year.
The Intermediate Pressure Compressor is a set of spinning discs with small blades which squeezes the air drawn in by the fan at the front of the engine, preparing it for further squeezing in the high pressure compressor and eventually being mixed with fuel and ignited in the combustor. There are 8 rotor stages within the Intermediate Pressure Compressor, each of which features a number of blades. The blades are manufactured from a titanium alloy.
The required inspections take a few hours to complete and can be completed without the engine being removed from the aircraft. It involves placing a probe within the engine and can usually be done between flights.
Each inspection takes a number of hours to complete, but if an issue is identified with a part, the engine would need to be removed and taken to one of our facilities. The time each engine spends in overhaul depends on the improvements we need to incorporate into that engine. We are using all techniques available to us to accelerate engine overhaul and have been investing in increased capacity to support the increased requirement for inspections.
The guidance issued by airworthiness authorities does not apply to VOP Series Package B engines or VOP Series TEN engines – our latest production standard. Both of these engines have compressors of a different design to the Package C.
We were already inspecting a smaller population of VOP Series engines, roughly once every three-four months. The new guidance widens the number of engines needing inspection and we also expect the frequency of these inspections to increase.
VOP Series durability: an illustrated guide
See exactly which areas we’ve made the improvements to and learn new details about each innovative solution.