Safran makes a LEAP into the future

Safran’s strategy is to have repair sources in three regions for each family component: America, Asia-Pacific and Europe, and lastly the Middle East and Africa. The new LEAP MRO shop in Casablanca will further expand Safran’s industrial footprint in Morocco while strengthening its partnership which spans more than a quarter of a century.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed during the state visit by French president Emmanuel Macron to Rabat by M. Ryad Mezzour, minister for trade and industry, Karim Zidane, deputy minister for investment, convergence, and assessment of public policies, and Ross McInnes, chairman of Safran’s Board. The ceremony was attended by his majesty Mohammed VI.

“We are making unprecedented investments to radically scale up our global MRO network to ensure we keep pace with the expected increase in demand for after sales support. It will be significantly expanded globally, allowing us to provide services where customers need them, while minimising the carbon footprint from our activities” underlines Jean-Paul Alary, Safran Aircraft Engines CEO.

According to Alary, the expansion of Safran’s global LEAP MRO network is in response to “the tremendous success of this engine, which has been chosen by some 180 airlines around the world”.

To support the expansion of its MRO network, Safran Aircraft Engines plans to hire 4,000 people worldwide and forge local learning and academic partnerships to ensure the upskilling of staff across its MRO structure.

The project will enable the engine manufacturer to handle 1,200 shop visits per year by 2028. This capital outlay will cover the construction of an additional 120,000 sqm of industrial facilities dedicated to LEAP repair and maintenance.

For the Moroccan authorities and the Moroccan Aerospace Industries Association (GIMAS), this project epitomises the trustworthiness and the availability of highly-skilled labour within the Kingdom’s aerospace industry. It is the fruit of constant and large investments over the past decades to transform Morocco into an aerospace hub in the region especially for the supply chain.

The new 25,000 sqm shop to be built in the airport zone of Casablanca will create around 600 direct jobs by 2030. It will benefit from strategic training partnerships to ensure the development of the skills required. Once complete, the new MRO shop will have the capacity to handle 150 engines per year, allowing it to meet fast-growing demand for LEAP shop visits, especially from airlines based in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.   

Safran Aircraft Engines has signed several agreements with Moroccan partners during MAS 2024, including one with GIMAS to train engine mechanics and technicians (60 to 100 persons per year as from early 2025) to support Safran’s MRO subsidiary SAESM and its future dedicated LEAP MRO shop. Trainees will benefit from existing infrastructure, as well as new, purpose-built facilities belonging to Morocco’s foremost training providers.

The investment plan will also encompass a new site in Brussels (Belgium) which came on stream in early 2024 as well as a new facility in Hyderabad (India) which will enter service in 2025. A second MRO shop in Querétaro, Mexico, and a new test platform will begin operations in 2026. Expansion of its Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines facilities, in France, are scheduled for 2025 and 2026, respectively.

The investment plan furthermore includes a new turbine blade repair facility in Rennes (France) and the acquisition of the American company Component Repair Technologies.

Two additional agreements concern the purchase of a six-hectare (approx. 15-acre) plot of land through MedZ, a subsidiary of Morocco’s state-owned financial institution Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion. The second involves a service contract with Midparc for the new MRO shop real estate project.