Virgin Blue program finished

Customer says thank you with barbecue event

The redelivery of CFM56-7B engine S/N 892989 on 20 May marked the successful completion of Virgin Blue’s VSV Bushing Replacement program. This project was only achievable by the efforts of all the parties involved, which included commercial, technical and logistics staff of Virgin Blue, Lufthansa Technik and LTQ Engineering. With a barbecue at the LTQ facility, the airline thanked all colleagues involved.

The program commenced in December 2009. Since then a total of 60 engines have been processed through the LTQ engine overhaul facility in Melbourne. The turnaround time for each engine was five days and with few exceptions this was consistently achieved.

As an acknowledged of LTQ’s performance and to express their appreciation of the support provided, Virgin Blue put on a barbecue at the LTQ facility on 4 May for all LTQ colleagues. Technical and logistics staff from Virgin Blue’s Melbourne and Brisbane operations also joined in the celebrations.

Brian Sharp, General Manager of Virgin Blue’s Technical Department, also attended and took the opportunity to express the appreciation of the airline for the excellent performance of LTQ in meeting Virgin Blue’s operational requirements. He stated that in 2010 Virgin Blue were facing a critical operational challenge with 60 of their CFM56-7B engines requiring VSV Bushing Replacement over an 18-months period. This situation required very careful planning and the commitment by the MRO provider to deliver a consistent service performance to meet the critical timeline of such a program.

In particular, the co-ordinating role performed by LTQ’s CFM56-7B In-Process Engineer Andy Symons played an important part as he was the center piece of the team work. His efforts in managing each shop visit was also acknowledged and highly praised by Virgin Blue.

Brian Sharp further stated that the success of a project of this nature was dependent upon a close working relationship and a spirit of cooperation between LTQ and Virgin Blue. It certainly provides a solid platform to establish a mutually beneficial partnership into the future. It was also acknowledged that the material support from Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg played a significant part in achieving the final successful outcome.

Albert McCormack, LTQ