With a shortage of material creating a buoyant marketplace for CFM56 -3 components, aircraft component support provider Bii.aero is marketing a suite of engine piece parts from a tear-down programme with Dublin based aircraft and engine leasing firm Rostrum Leasing.
Specialist aircraft component support provider Bii.aero is marketing a suite of engine piece parts resulting from the jointly managed phased tear-down programme with Dublin-based aircraft and engine leasing firm Rostrum Leasing.
The selected B737-300 Classics and CFM56 spare engines were formerly operated by Southwest Airlines. Bii.aero has all available piece parts from the initial three tear-downs to serve the used materials market at their warehouse near LGW for sales and distribution, and over 3,000 parts from a further two engines have just finished their workshop repair programmes and will be integrated immediately.
Materials shortages
Shortage of material is creating a buoyant marketplace for the CFM56 -3 components with engine MRO providers keen to lock in supplies. Streamlining processes within Bii’s warehouse to cope with the influx of parts and the immediate uptake has taken a couple of months but now the Company is seeing increased demand, especially from Europe and North America, for hot items such as fan blades – all stages 1-8, vanes stages 1-3, nozzles stage 1, and all major modules. The majority of LLPs have 50-60% of life remaining making them ideal for rebuilds, particularly to service the fast-growing freighter sector.
Bii has also introduced some bulk-bidding procedures to help MROs ensure continuity of service to their operator customers during shop visits. Many of the -3 parts are interchangeable with the -5B and -7B CFM56 variants and these two engines have been extremely successful. Operators have enjoyed far longer time on-wing than originally anticipated – however up till 2021 a great many engines will require shop visits as this bonanza comes to an end, so slot-availability and availability of suitable parts will be at a premium.
Justin Blockley, Commercial Director – Bii, says that it was a logical step in Bii’s expansion programme to move into the aircraft engines arena. “We’ve been considering a number of options but wanted to ensure that, when we informed the market about our new capability, we had the depth of stock to offer MROs, engine shops and traders scope and choice. We currently have about USD $5m of CFM56-3 material stocked on-site available for sales or exchange, including Time on Wing (“TOW”) upgraded airfoils and LLP disks that are common with CFM56-5/-7 engines. We also have the capacity to expand the engine types on offer via consignment stock or other partner programmes with lessors and OEMs.”
James Burley joins Bii
James Burley has recently joined Bii as their new Commercial Manager and he has a wide-reaching responsibility for the engines division. Capitalising on his previous sales experience, Burley will focus on establishing and managing the strategic growth of Bii’s broad inventory of Boeing and Airbus aircraft spares. He will also play a key role in developing and enhancing Bii’s use of analytics to support company growth.
“James brings valuable knowledge and experience of commercial aircraft, engine leasing and technical management” says Blockley. “This is helping us build recognition for Bii’s new capabilities as we expand further into the global engines arena and he is heading up a new team of experienced sales, technical and asset management people to better serve our customers.”
Bii has chosen Chromalloy to repair, overhaul and inspect all of its CFM56-3 engine material. The GTA with Chromalloy was awarded in recognition of their extensive expertise and wide range of capabilities on the CFM56-3 engine and the advanced repair services that are offered and according to Burley working with Chromalloy will help preserve near 99% yield on components that otherwise would be considerably lower. “Consolidating the repairs across such a large quantity of engine parts with one MRO will also enable us to save costs and time throughout the repair process.”
The overhauls, repairs and inspections will primarily take place within a few divisions of Chromalloy including facilities in the US (Nevada and Texas), Holland and Thailand. Burley adds “Certifying engine material with a major global MRO like Chromalloy signifies quality and expertise. Our customers will know they are buying units repaired to the highest standard.”
Chromalloy has a worldwide presence, spanning a customer base across commercial, cargo and military sectors. Bii aims to increase its intake of CMF56 material and Chromalloy’s extensive experience across all engine types will be very beneficial to Bii as it builds exposure to a wider customer base.
Blockley goes on to say that the sourcing relationship with Rostrum Leasing heralds the start of Bii’s ambitions for the engines sector within its global aircraft parts business. “Although aircraft retirements may be slightly up for the first time in seven years, the age continues to rise for narrowbody, widebody and regional jets. Demand for parts to service this ageing global fleet will grow, particularly for engines which remain in very high demand. It seems increasingly evident that operators will try and find ever more cost-effective solutions to maintain their fleets and postpone taking on the operational risk and ownership costs of new technology.
“We need the availability and reliability of new technology to pick up pace again to enable the flow of aircraft back into the freighter conversion programmes and parts markets. It’s interesting to note that the new A321P2F is scheduled to come on-stream in 2020 and the CFM56 engine is the most popular engine type for the A320 family. Bii see a healthy future for our engines spares business and we will look to expand our offer as market dynamics shift over the next year or so.”
