All Sleigh, No Delay: Field Service Engineers Keep Holiday Travelers and Cargo Moving

Most people enjoy some downtime at year’s end, but the world’s airlines can’t relax. 

“The sense of urgency is more elevated than normal,” says Jordan Mayes, a regional leader in GE Aerospace’s Commercial Field Service (CFS) focused on Western Europe and Africa. “And often there are fewer hands to do the work.” So GE Aerospace field service engineers (FSEs) make the most of the calm before the storm — partnering with passenger and cargo airlines to plan ahead, anticipate issues, and mitigate risk.

This holiday season, 180 GE Aerospace FSEs will be embedded with airlines and airframers in 34 countries, living up to their reputation as a trusted technical partner — at the customer, for the customer. To keep their customers’ schedules running like clockwork, FSEs rely on years of expertise, data-derived insights, and a healthy measure of proactive planning.     

“The teams are proactive, doing what they can to ensure all those extra flights go without disruption,” says Mayes. “The last thing any airline wants is unscheduled maintenance, or disruptions that lead to passengers stuck in terminals.” 

And the focus is not only on passengers, GE Aerospace FSEs help cargo operators manage increased demand during the busy festive season. “An issue with a grounded or delayed passenger aircraft might delay 350 people,” says Stephane Petter, CFS regional leader for Central and Eastern Europe, Türkiye, and Central Asia. “With a cargo plane, thousands of parcels might be delayed, so the downstream customer impact is potentially greater.”

The holiday season pushes cargo operators to their limit — the “peak of the peak” in traffic, says Jusso Miquel, a senior FSE who supports Luxembourg-based Cargolux Airlines International, one of the world’s largest all-cargo airlines. In fact, cargo operators have less room in their schedules for error than passenger carriers. “They don’t fly point to point, but in rotations that might include six to seven flight legs,” says the fleet manager. 

Getting Ahead of the Game

For FSEs, the demands span the globe — from countries spooling up for major holidays like Christmas and China’s Spring Festival to major events such as the African Cup of Nations soccer tournament in Morocco and Riyadh Season in Saudi Arabia.

In Morocco, a team of GE Aerospace FSEs has moved up a scheduled maintenance program for Royal Air Maroc’s GEnx engines, which power its fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners. The timelier checks position the national carrier for approximately 660 additional flights during the tournament. 

By working with the airline to schedule maintenance in October and November, the FSE team addressed minor issues before they could escalate into bigger problems during the busy season. They analyzed mountains of engine data such as performance, exhaust gas temperature (EGT), and oil consumption. If trends moved in the wrong direction, they intervened early. It’s predictive maintenance in action: The FSEs have lowered Royal Air Maroc’s risk of costly, disruptive engine removals during a period when the airline is expected to bring up to 1 million additional visitors to the country.

“Part of Their Team” 

Ammar Alsahafi, a Riyadh-based FSE who supports Saudi Airlines and Riyadh Air, is also helping ensure stability for his customer’s fleet as the seasonal air traffic heats up. Right now, he is embedded with a 30-strong Riyadh Air engineering team, smoothing the entry into service of 90 GEnx-1B engines that will power the airline’s fleet of Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners slated to fly new long-haul routes starting in mid-December. 

Riyadh Air’s ramp-up coincides with Riyadh Season, and Alsahafi is leaving no stone unturned. He uses a 179-point readiness checklist for each GEnx-1B engine, covering initial provisioning, spare parts, engines, tools, and more. Twice per week, Alsahafi attends all-hands engineering meetings to discuss the long-haul launch. “I’m the only GE Aerospace person in the building to answer questions about the engine,” he says. “I’m building a connection with the customers, and I feel like part of their team.”  

He’s proving his worth, too. Earlier this year, Alsahafi noticed that a leased GEnx-1B engine was just four cycles away from a mandatory 500-cycle inspection. The engine also needed a minor repair to a small clamp that helps prevent vibration. Anticipating that the inspection and repair might result in a grounded aircraft at a critical time for the customer, he acted quickly.  

He identified a six-hour window in the plane’s schedule and brought the inspection forward. “I looked on the portal, talked to engineers, scheduled the inspection, did a stock check, acquired the part, went to the airport, and confirmed the work was completed,” he recalls. The proactive approach averted a potential disruption and reset the inspection interval. “Now we know to change the clamp maybe 10 or 20 cycles ahead of time,” he explains. 

Alsahafi is part of a team of a dozen engine specialists embedded with customers in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Doha, Dubai, Muscat, and Riyadh who keep more than 1,700 engines flying safely in the region. And GE Aerospace is doubling down on its commitment to its Middle Eastern customers. In November, the company announced a new, state-of-the-art On Wing Support (OWS) facility at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Aerospace Hub in Dubai South. 

Continuously Monitoring Precious Cargo  

Ultimately, the goal is to maintain reliability and keep customers’ planes flying — safely, on schedule, and cost-effectively. And that requires informed forecasting. For instance, to reduce the risk of precious cargo being stuck in transit, GE Aerospace FSEs project fleet plans months ahead of schedule and continuously analyze data on engine operations to get a head start on issues. 

“I’ll look at 20 to 30 data points to check if any engine is running hot,” says Miquel. If he finds one, he recommends its prompt removal and a water wash to avert a potential problem. “We’re operating conveyor belts in the air. If we fall behind, we cannot catch up. We’re always looking two steps ahead and making educated decisions, drawing on experience and continuous monitoring.” 

In that sense, an FSE’s work is never done. Their proactive mindset and impeccable preparation help ensure that the engines manufactured by GE Aerospace and its partners will continue to lift up millions of people and thousands of tons of cargo, bringing them all home safely during the holidays and far into the future.