VIDEO: TechOps continues to grow MRO business with major investments (Video)

In 2018, Delta TechOps continued to invest in and grow its Maintenance Repair and Overhaul business, resulting in record-breaking financial growth, expanded capabilities, increased work with new partners and continued work with current partners.

As the largest aviation maintenance group in North America, Delta TechOps highly skilled workforce of over 10,000 technicians, engineers and other support employees provide full-service maintenance to more than 850 Delta aircraft and their engines as well as maintenance services to more than 150 other operators, cargo operators and the Military & Government, through the airline's MRO business.

Highlights from 2018 include:

• Opening a new 127,000-square-foot state-of-the-art engine repair shop, which enables Delta to perform maintenance on engines with the most sophisticated and advanced technologies
• Inducting the first customer engine into the new engine shop - a Trent 1000 engine operated by Delta's joint venture partner Virgin Atlantic
• Partnering with Rolls-Royce to provide worldwide On-Wing Care Services
• Expanding component capabilities with more than 10,000 added part numbers
• Opening a hot section repair shop, which allows Delta to perform turbine section component repairs in-house, reducing the cost of materials, providing better visibility over the process, driving quicker turn times and providing better on-site support.
• Signing an agreement with Pratt & Whitney to allow TechOps to become a major MRO provider for the next-generation Pure Power PW1100G and PW1500G engines, the power plant for Delta's A321neo and A220 fleets.
• Packing more than 10,000 meals for Feed My Starving Children, a non-profit organization that provides nutritionally complete meals for malnourished children

Looking forward to 2019, Delta TechOps will open the world's largest test cell, which will be capable of safely running a mounted, stationary engine at full power with 150,000 pounds of thrust. CEO Ed Bastian will also provide the keynote address at the largest aviation maintenance conference of the year in April.

Through expanded capabilities and new facilities, Delta expects to grow the top line of the MRO business by $1 billion a year in the next five years.