Pratt & Whitney has appointed five new Designated Maintenance Facilities (DMFs) in Europe, North America, South America and Asia to provide line maintenance for many of its engines operating around the world.

The new DMFs are Rijnmond Air Services, based in Rotterdam, Netherlands (PT6A, PW500 engines); Alidaunia of Foggia, Italy (PT6B, PT6C, PT6T, PW200, PW210 engines); ALE Service Center in San Nicolás Tolentino, Mexico (PT6A, PT6B, PT6C, PW200, PW300 and PW500 engines); Central Aerospace of Bogota, Colombia (PT6A, JT5D engines); and AVIC China Flying Dragon GA, based in Harbin, China (PT6A-135A, PT6A-27 engines).

“Today's announcement brings the number of Pratt & Whitney DMFs serving helicopters and the general and business aviation industries to 13, located in North and South America, Europe and Asia,” says Satheeshkumar Kumarasingam, VP of customer service at Pratt & Whitney. “Our global DMFs are effectively delivering local and personalised line maintenance and mobile repair services to our customers. DMFs are part of our broader efforts to ensure we provide the right engine maintenance solutions to meet our customers' needs in an efficient and timely manner while ensuring our high technical standards are met. Further, these DMFs help improve the availability of parts in the desired country and the rapid deployment of service.”

Rijnmond and Alidaunia are the first Pratt & Whitney DMFs in Europe. In the Americas, ALE in Mexico and Central Aerospace in Colombia will join Portage Aircraft Maintenance in Canada, Mapiex Aviation in Panama and ABA Manutencao de Aeronaves, Helipark Manutenção Aeronáutica and Rico Taxi Aereo in Brazil, all of which cover a variety of PT6A and helicopter engine models. Finally in Asia, AVIC China Flying Dragon GA will join COHC Aviation Science and Technic in China for PT6A and PT6C engines, Taj Air in India for PW308C engines and Helicopter Services Company, JSC in Moscow, Russia for PW207K engine support.