This Team’s Got Seoul: GE Aerospace On Wing Support Celebrates 25 Years in Korea

On Valentine’s Day in 2000, as hundreds of passenger planes were gliding in and out of Gimpo Airport in Seoul, South Korea, a good number of travelers had romance on their minds. Yet a different sort of relationship was blooming inside the airport’s Asiana Airlines maintenance facility. There, a small, newly formed team of technicians and managers gathered to celebrate the opening of GE Aerospace’s brand-new On Wing Support (“OWS”) hub and a budding partnership with the South Korean airline. The OWS crew had a small space, with a single engine bay and a relatively simple mission: providing rapid-response engine services for Asiana aircraft. 

This year, as the OWS facility in Seoul celebrates its silver anniversary, a larger team — working in a much larger space — is marking the occasion. The once-modest group now includes 76 employees, serves a variety of airlines, and operates in a dedicated 72,100-square-foot (6,700-square-meter) shop in the Gimpo Aerospace Industrial Complex, between Gimpo Airport and Seoul’s newer Incheon International Airport.

“We started as a relatively small entity, with 10 people, mainly supporting one customer and working in a very tight space, and we’ve been growing ever since,” says Site Leader Yong-Hwan Seo. “We have transformed our business model from supporting just one dedicated customer to servicing GE Aerospace engines for more than 130 airlines.” 

GE Aerospace’s OWS facility in Seoul operates 24/7 to provide quick-turn in-shop repairs and on-wing maintenance that keep aircraft flying in Korea and beyond. With a territory extending west to India and south to Australia and New Zealand, the team services engines manufactured by GE Aerospace and CFM International, a 50-50 joint company between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines, and has the in-house capacity to turn around 70 powerplants each year.  

“Our people are dedicated, passionate, and honest, and they work with integrity,” says Seo. “It’s the same with GE Aerospace employees around the globe.”

Flying Higher with Smart Growth

Seo took on his role in 2013, just as the facility was embarking on an intense period of growth. GEnx engines had entered service two years earlier and were quickly gaining popularity, powering Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 747-8s around the world. By 2016, CFM LEAP engines, which power all variants of Airbus A320neo, Boeing 737 MAX, and COMAC C919 passenger jets, were also filling the skies. “With more engines flying, there were more servicing opportunities,” says Seo. 

Valued for their reliability and durability as well as fuel efficiency, these engines don’t typically require attention between scheduled maintenance visits. But when an issue does arise, OWS technicians are at the ready. GE Aerospace’s OWS network is often the first call airlines make when they have an aircraft on ground (AOG), and the technicians can be dispatched to arrive on the scene within hours. In many cases, they can replace a component while the engine remains on the aircraft. In other situations, they may perform a full quick engine change (QEC), installing a new engine in place of the one in need of service, so it can be transported to an OWS shop for a quick-turn repair. Once the components are replaced or repaired, the engine can be returned to service with minimal inconvenience. The facility in Seoul is one of seven GE Aerospace repair stations worldwide offering 24/7 support, with others in Shanghai, Doha, Dubai, London, Cincinnati, and Dallas.

Managing increased demand is a challenge that Seo and his colleagues meet with careful planning. “Our approach has always been gradual growth — we are working on jet engines, so safety is always our main focus,” he notes. The workspace in Seoul was expanded twice in the past 12 years, more than quadrupling its square footage since 2013, while new technicians have been steadily recruited from South Korea’s skilled talent pool. Meanwhile, four employees from the founding team — Operation Manager Chun Lee, Lead Engineer Kyong-pyo Hong, and Technicians Seokju Eo and Ji-ock Kim — remain on board, providing valuable contributions and long-term perspective.   

“The most remarkable change in the OWS network has been the way we work,” says Hong. “In the past, engine work was done literally on-wing or on-site, but now it is mainly done in the shop, using service methods such as quick-turn. And the engines we work on have changed to the latest models, such as CFM LEAP* and GEnx.”

“I’m proud of the fact that the OWS facility in Korea started out with just a few employees and has now grown into a global operation,” says Lee, who has risen to a management position after starting out as the youngest technician on the team. “We continue to do process improvement though kaizen activities, to provide the best safety and quality to airlines around the world.”

Achieving LIIFT-off with FLIGHT DECK 

The OWS team in Seoul is now using FLIGHT DECK, GE Aerospace’s proprietary lean operating model, to drive improvement in its operations. Through an initiative known as LIIFT, or Level II Floor Transformation, which was developed during a weeklong kaizen event in 2023, the team reconfigured their shop layout in a way that increased the number of engines they could service at one time from 10 to 16. “It was a big transformation that allowed us to increase our capacity without increasing the number of employees or the size of our space,” says Seo. “We can quickly turn around and ship out 50-plus LEAP engines and 20 GEnx engines per year.”

Anticipating additional business growth, Seo is already considering the future needs for the OWS facility in Korea. But it’s his colleagues who give him faith in their ability to meet whatever demands lie ahead. “Our people deeply comprehend the nature of our business and the crucial role safe, reliable engines play for millions of people flying around the world,” he says. “I have been so fortunate to work with people who have earned the trust and empowerment to do their jobs with unwavering dedication, and I look forward to the work we’ll do together to further the OWS mission.”

*CFM LEAP engines are a product of CFM International, a 50-50 joint company between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines.