The United States Navy has awarded Air New Zealand Gas Turbines a USD$17 million contract to service and overhaul 12 General Electric LM2500 Power Turbines that power some of the Navy’s cruisers.

The work will be carried out at the airline’s gas turbines facility in Auckland and is expected to commence in October, concluding in the 2020 Financial Year.

Air New Zealand Chief Ground Operations Officer Carrie Hurihanganui says this latest contract is testament to the high regard the US Navy has for the airline’s gas turbines division.

“This is a significant win for our Gas Turbines business, building on what has already become a strong relationship with the US Navy to service the engine units that power much of its fleet,” says Ms Hurihanganui.

In early 2017 Air New Zealand Gas Turbines, along with competitor maintenance facilities, secured two significant US Navy contracts which enable each party to bid for turbine overhaul work from a total pool of US $126 million worth of work.  Air New Zealand Gas Turbines was also independently awarded three smaller contracts.

The airline last year secured USD$20 million worth of confirmed work covering 11 US Navy engine units. This latest stream of work brings the total committed US Navy work to date to US$37 million for a total of 23 engines.

Air New Zealand Gas Turbines is a business unit of Air New Zealand, providing gas turbine overhaul and repair services to clients across a range of industries.  The business began sourcing work in the industrial and marine sector more than 35 years ago and has since supported several of the world’s navies, offshore oil and gas platform operators and power generation companies.