MTU Maintenance signs exclusive total engine care contract with Air Costa

Ludwigsfelde (Germany), 16 December 2014 – MTU Maintenance, one of the leading engine maintenance providers worldwide, has added another airline to its continuously growing customer list: Air Costa, India’s newest airline has chosen MTU for the exclusive maintenance of its 
CF34-8/-10 engines operating its Embraer E170 and E190 fleet. Apart from engine maintenance, MTU will support Air Costa with LRU management and spare engines; Air Costa is thereby benefitting from the company’s Total Engine Care program (TEC®). The contract will run for 10 years and has a value of 25 million euros. Air Costa is MTU’s first customer from India and the first Indian E-Jet operator.

Air Costa’s engines will be overhauled at MTU Maintenance Berlin Brandenburg, an Authorized CF34 Service Provider and MTU’s center of excellence for industrial gas turbines. Since 2002, the company has maintained over 1,000 CF34 engines, both on- and off-wing, for over 100 customers worldwide. The shop currently has a capacity for over 200 shop visits per year. LRU management services will be provided by MTU Maintenance Canada, the company’s center of excellence for accessory repair and LRU management. Spare engine support will be delivered by MTU Maintenance Leases Services, a joint venture with Japanese Sumitomo Corporation based in Amsterdam that provides integrated leasing solutions to MTU’s MRO customers as well as third parties.

Air Costa, based in Vijayawada, India started its operations in October 2013 and offers affordable point-to-point regional connectivity to Tier II and Tier III cities in India, a market which holds 70 percent of India’s population and promises the largest growth rate. Only recently, Air Costa placed an order for 50 E2 E-Jets from Embraer, making the order the second largest ever by an airline for that aircraft type.