Ryanair has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar engine material services agreement with CFM International.
“For the last 30 years, CFM has been maintaining all of Ryanair’s CFM56 engines under a long term ‘power by the hour’ contract," said Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary.
Under the deal, the 50-50 joint venture between Safran and GE Aerospace will support Ryanair's engine maintenance programme, which is expected to include the opening of two engine MRO shops. The shops are set to open from 2029 and will support its fleet of almost 2,000 Boeing 737 engines.
"Ryanair is one of our largest customers, and we value the opportunity to work with them on solutions to increase capacity and reduce turnaround time," said Safran CEO Olivier Andries.
O'Leary added: "However, from 2029 onwards, Ryanair expects to bring the maintenance of its engines ‘in-house’, and we are pleased to do so with the help and support of our partners CFM. Ryanair will place substantial orders for initial spare parts provisioning with CFM to support the opening of each of these 2 Ryanair engine maintenance facilities.”
Ryanair has committed to purchase all of its engine spare parts directly from CFM in a contract to support its fleet as it grows to 800 737 family aircraft and over 2,000 CFM engines.
"With the ongoing success of the CFM56 and the rapid growth of the LEAP fleet, we are investing to build a global MRO network within an open and competitive ecosystem to help our airline customers optimize fleet efficiency and control operational costs," said GE Aerospace CEO and chairman Lawrence Culp.
The deal will support Ryanair's existing and future CFM56-7B and LEAP-1B engines, which are used on the airline's 737 NG and MAX jets. Ryanair said it expects to take over the maintenance of these engines directly from CFM when it opens the two MRO shops. Over this period, Ryanair expects to commit to purchasing spare parts in excess of $1bn directly from CFM.