Embraer Group company OGMA has signed on as an authorized maintenance center for Pratt & Whitney PW1100G Geared Turbofan (GTF) engines for the Airbus A320neo family, Embraer revealed on Thursday following 12 months of engagement with the U.S. engine manufacturer on the structure of the contract.
Embraer expects an industrialization and training project associated with the GTF contract to start early next year and it will spend the following 18 to 20 months readying the plant for the first engine work in late 2022 or early 2023.
OGMA plans to invest €74 million ($87 million), mostly during the first four years of the project, to broaden its scope of engine maintenance activity and achieve enough new business to triple its revenues to some €600 million annually. Speaking with AIN hours after the announcement, Embraer Services & Support president Johann Bordais noted that both partners in OGMA—majority owner Embraer and the Portuguese government—will contribute to the investment.
Although the contract calls for OGMA to support PW1100Gs exclusively, Bordais said he expected more opportunity in the future to expand its scope to include other GTF derivatives. Variants of the engine also power all of Embraer’s E2 family of E-Jets, the Airbus A220, Irkut’s MC-21, and the now-suspended Mitsubishi SpaceJet.
“At some point we’ll be talking with Pratt about the other members of the family,” said Bordais. “The relationship between Embraer and Pratt goes back to the 1970s…they were on the first program, the Bandeirante, [as well as] the Brasilia; they are on the Super Tucano; they are on Phenom 100 and 300 family; they make APUs for us; so it’s a great partnership since the beginning of Embraer’s history…It’s a natural fit.”
Bordais wouldn’t talk about the plan for future GTF capacity at the plant or for what share of the market OGMA aspires to control, however, citing confidentiality considerations.
A Rolls-Royce center of excellence majority-owned by Embraer since 2008, OGMA employs 1,800 people at its factory outside Lisbon. Embraer said it expects the deal with Pratt to create another 300 jobs.