Innovation will be the keyword for French giant Safran this week at the Paris Air show. Its new CEO, Philippe Petitcolin, appointed in May, announced some of the latest steps taken by the company during a press conference on the Thursday before the show.
As of late last week, the Leap-1A engine, one of two powerplant options for the Airbus A320neo, had already flown 19 times in three weeks, on average of five hours each time. Safran indicated that it’s engine is benefitting from the problems of the competing A320neo engine from Pratt & Whitney, the PurePower PW1100G-JM, which has not been able to fly in two weeks due to undisclosed issues. As a result, “Airbus has more time to give to our aircraft that sometimes can fly twice a day,” Petitcolin said at Safran’s headquarters here in Paris.
Safran has carefully prepared the ramp-up of Leap production, with all the specific parts doubled-sourced to avoid a break in the supply chain. Half of the production will take place in France and, with 9,000 engines already ordered, the company is very confident. “But we are at the maximum capacity of our engagement right now,” Petitcolin said. “It is a true production challenge; some very emotional years are ahead of us.”
Jean-Luc Bérard, executive vice president in charge of human resources, confirmed that Safran will be expanding its workforce to cope with the challenges posed by the exceptionally high demand for the Leap engines. “We are looking for some specific profiles, people who can work on production, and there is tension in these jobs,” he said. The Leap program could create up to 10,000 jobs in France, estimates Safran.
In 2014, the Safran-GE CFM joint venture delivered 1,560 of the existing CFM56 engines, and about 4,100 are still expected to be produced. These power the existing A320 and Boeing 737 narrowbodies.
Meanwhile, the M88 turbofan produced for the Dassault Rafale fighter by Safran subsidiary Snecma has benefitted from two export deals, with Egypt and Qatar. Petitcolon indicated that the company would consider increasing production rates to support three aircraft per month when a third deal with India is eventually finalized, and if what he described as “possible contracts that are about 50-percent sure” are achieved.
Safran is investing 12 percent of its revenues in innovation, and continue to hire en masse. About 30,000 people arrived in the company over the last five years, mostly young professionals, who can now be trained in the new Safran campus of Vilgenis, near Paris.