The Scenario

A European airline was faced with an AOG situation after they experienced a bird strike on one of their CFM56-3 engines. The bird strike had caused enough damage that a number of fan blades needed to be replaced.

The engine had 25 degree fan blades fitted rather than the more readily available 37 degree blades. There wasn’t enough surplus 25 degree blades in the market to replace the damaged blades.

This meant that they were faced with buying new 25 degree blades, or a complete set of 37 degree blades

TES’ Service

TES Parts’ fan blade exchange program allows customers to take a damaged set of fan blades, and exchange them for a serviceable set of blades.

In this case, the airline took advantage of the option to upgrade to a full set of 37 degree blades as part of the exchange.

These blades were “on the shelf” at TES and were shipped to the stranded engine within 24 hours. TES then sent the damaged blades for repair and accepted the serviceable blades back into our fan blade pool.

The Outcome

The airline was able to exchange their 25 degree blades for a full set of 37 degree blades, at a fraction of the price of new blades, and saved themselves over $300,000. They were also able to get their aircraft back into the air and earning revenue.