Originally Posted by
Toruk Macto
The engine goes into an engine shop when it comes off the wing . Why can’t that engine shop be in Australia ? Qantas in partnership with engine manufacturers can run engine maintenance/ repair .
When you're talking a small fleet of aircraft/engines, it simply isn't cost effective for an operator to have a dedicated engine shop for a small number of engines. Twelve A380s, so 48 engines plus a few spares is simply too small a fleet - unless you're talking a joint venture with a few other A380/Trent operators to get up to a reasonable number of engines (at least 100), the fixed costs become killer.
Sunfish, I'm not over familiar with the Rolls power by the hour programs - nearly all my experience was with GE. But my experience with the GE program was rather impressive. They have algorithms to determine how many spare engines they need based on the fleet size, age, and utilization - and where to park them to make sure a spare is nearby when needed.
The engine monitoring routines are good, but they are not perfect. Used properly, they can and do reduce the number of engine related issues - including shutdowns - but they won't catch everything. St. Murphy is very difficult to predict.