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• 400 distinguished guests attend anniversary festivities in Southern China

Zhuhai, China, April 6, 2011 – MTU Maintenance Zhuhai is a jewel among the shops operated by MTU Maintenance. Ten years ago, the company obtained regulatory approval from the authorities, and ever since it opened shop, it has seen consistent expansion of its business. "Today, MTU Maintenance Zhuhai is the No. 1 engine maintenance provider in China, a position which it attained within a mere ten years' time. I have the great pleasure to extend my sincere congratulations on this achievement," said Egon Behle. MTU's CEO had travelled to Zhuhai to celebrate the first major milestone anniversary and also the overhaul of the 1,000th engine with about 400 distinguished guests from the political and business communities, along with officials representing the joint venture partners, MTU and China Southern Airlines, on Wednesday, April 6, 2011.

Holger Sindemann, president and CEO of MTU Maintenance Zhuhai, gave a run-down of the history of the JV company and provided an outlook on the future: "Having become the largest engine MRO shop in China, we're now poised to become the largest in Asia." The course is set for further development; in the past year alone, the company chalked up a series of successes. The number of engines visiting the shop – among them the first engine sent in by a Japanese customer, All Nippon Airways –  hit  166 units. But that was not the end of it: The expansion of the location proceeded according to plan, and the first step was completed with the inauguration of another shop. Once the second step of the construction work is complete, the company, which spreads over an area of 156,000 square meters, will have added 10,000 square meters of building area, bringing it to a total of almost 35,000 square meters.

Says Sindemann: "Our aim is to boost our annual capacity from 200 to 300 shop visits." To do so, he is planning to add further engine types to the line of repair and overhaul services. The company specializes in V2500 and CFM56-3, -5B and -7 engines. "In this region, we are the undisputed market leader as a maintenance provider for V2500 engines, which power Airbus A320-family engines," reports Sindemann. Taken across the various engine types, the 50/50 joint venture of MTU and China Southern Airlines has overhauled a total of 1,000 engines to this day; the company's workforce stands at some 560 employees. 

MTU's Chinese subsidiary has earned a number of national and international prizes, which are testimony to its excellent reputation. It twice won Guangdong's High Technology Company honors, received the renowned Aviation Week Group's Asia Pacific Independent MRO Operation Award, held the title of Best Work Safety Company several times over, and was chosen Excellence Enterprise with Foreign Investment.

The company, which is located in the Pearl River Delta in southern China, has been set up in Zhuhai's free trade zone and benefits from its proximity to Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Macao; repair teams can be dispatched to the customers in the region in no time. The Zhuhai shop has an advanced machine park and strictly lives by the motto adopted by MTU Maintenance: "Repair beats Replacement". It applies the high-tech repair processes for which the MTU Maintenance, the largest independent provider of commercial engine maintenance services worldwide, has made a name for itself around the globe. 

About MTU Aero Engines
MTU Aero Engines is Germany's leading and the country's only independent engine manufacturer. The company, a long-established player in the industry, operates locations in Germany, North America, China, Malaysia and Poland, and has a global workforce of some 7,900 employees. In fiscal 2010, MTU posted consolidated sales of about 2.7 billion euros. MTU is a world technology leader, excelling in low-pressure turbines, high-pressure compressors, and manufacturing and repair techniques. MTU has globally established itself as a partner of choice, working with the world's prime engine manufacturers General Electric, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce to develop the propulsion system technologies of the future.