On the morning of November 9, 2022, the first China Southern Airlines Maintenance Reform and Development Forum was successfully held in the news center of the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Expo (hereinafter referred to as the "14th China Aviation Expo"), which helped build a world-class aviation maintenance service brand, and provided a strong impetus for the development of the airport economy in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, the activation of domestic aviation resources, and the gathering of high-end industrial elements. The forum was jointly held by Engineering Technology Branch of China Southern Airlines Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Southern Airlines Engineering Technology"), Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "GAMECO") and Zhuhai Free Trade Zone Motianyu Aeroengine Maintenance Co., Ltd Achievements of new technologies and major signed cooperation projects. During the activity, Wu Rong, assistant general manager of China Southern Airlines Group Co., Ltd., made a new keynote speech, and important leaders and experts from CAAC Management Cadre Institute, COMAC Customer Service Company, GAMECO, Zhuhai MTU, etc. carried out sofa forum exchanges and discussions. More than 80 leading figures and industry leaders from a number of well-known enterprises in the global aviation manufacturing industry, civil aviation maintenance field, etc. gathered here to share the achievements of China Southern Airlines' maintenance reform and seek a new chapter of cooperation and development.

Wu Rongxin, assistant general manager of China Southern Airlines Group Co., Ltd., pointed out in the keynote speech that China Southern Airlines Group implemented the requirements of the central government on deepening the reform of state-owned enterprises, clarified the high-quality development idea of "five five six", continued to promote the reform of the maintenance management system and mechanism around the goal of building a pillar industry of maintenance, and formally set up the engineering technology of China Southern Airlines on September 15, 2021. As a maintenance management entity, after more than a year's efforts, China Southern Airlines engineering technology has deeply promoted the "four modernizations" reform of China Southern Airlines' maintenance, including "market-oriented operation, integrated management, industrialized operation and international development", with remarkable results. China Southern Airlines has made great efforts to create sustainable and high-quality safety, ensuring the flight safety of China Southern Airlines' fleet for more than 270 consecutive months. The largest operation service guarantee system in China has been established. With Guangzhou as the center, 18 maintenance bases have been set up in large and medium-sized cities across the country, with 20,000 employees. The maintenance support capability has spread to more than 300 regional terminals around the world, mastering the operation and maintenance capabilities of almost all mainstream models in the market, and the fleet release reliability ranking continues to maintain the leading position in the industry. Since the maintenance reform of China Southern Airlines, the quality, price and cycle of aircraft maintenance have become more competitive. China Southern Airlines Engineering Technology, GAMECO and Zhuhai MTU have cooperated to establish a full product chain of aircraft maintenance from route maintenance, airframe overhaul, AOG support services, accessories and engine repair, to aircraft parts manufacturing, engineering management and maintenance training. China Southern Airlines is committed to providing customers with better maintenance quality and lower maintenance prices High quality service with shorter maintenance cycle. At present, GAMECO's comprehensive maintenance capacity ranks among the top ten in the world, and Zhuhai's MTU engine maintenance capacity ranks first in Asia and the world.

Aircraft maintenance is a high-value link at the back end of the aviation industry chain. Strengthening the scientific and technological innovation of aircraft maintenance and exploring new ways of civil aviation intelligent maintenance are of great significance for improving the capability level and economic benefits of the aviation maintenance industry chain in the post epidemic era. In recent years, China Southern Airlines Locomotive attaches great importance to innovation driven development strategy, constantly explores intelligent maintenance, accelerates the construction of scientific and technological innovation ecosystem, promotes digital transformation, and the locomotive maintenance industry revolution reappears its advantages. At present, relying on the first batch of civil aviation maintenance engineering technology research centers recognized by the Civil Aviation Administration and the only one in the maintenance field, China Southern Airlines Locomotive&Maintenance Co., Ltd. has established the research direction of "aircraft intelligent maintenance", built the first cross domain 5G integrated private network in the civil aviation maintenance field, actively participated in domestic aircraft research, built a digital management system (TAOIX) for the full life cycle of aircraft, and continued to iteratively develop aircraft remote health diagnosis, The industry took the lead in using face recognition and blockchain technology to open a new era of paperless aircraft maintenance electronic records, achieving significant economic benefits and further boosting the development of China's civil aviation maintenance industry. "In the future, China Southern Airlines will help MRO to continuously broaden the industry track and form an ecological digital system through the promotion of digital technology and innovation of business value, so as to promote the innovation of digital mode of the industry and create a 'meta universe' space of the industry." Li Xin, executive vice general manager of engineering technology of China Southern Airlines and moderator of the forum, said.

The forum invited leaders and experts from China's civil aviation industry to discuss the strategic goals and development direction of the civil aviation industry and enterprises under the current complex situation in the form of a sofa forum. Yu Jian, president of CAAC Academy of Management, believes that big data and artificial intelligence are another key common technological change facing human society. Existing communication support technologies have laid a technical foundation for their development. In the future, big data and artificial intelligence will be widely used in civil aviation intelligent maintenance. Huan Cheng'an, deputy general manager of customer service of COMAC, introduced the ARJ21-700 aircraft delivery, operation and maintenance network construction, as well as the current maintenance capacity construction and future planning of the maintenance network of C919 aircraft. In the future, China Southern Airlines will establish a closer cooperation relationship with COMAC to jointly promote the vigorous development of the large domestic aircraft industry. Marc Szepan, General Manager of GAMECO, introduced the development direction of GAMECO's in-depth maintenance capability. In the next step, GAMECO will deeply integrate with China Southern Airlines' engineering technology and Zhuhai MTU to achieve coordination of maintenance resources and give play to China Southern Airlines' locomotive scale advantages. Gert Wagner, general manager of Zhuhai MTU, introduced the company's series of investment and construction in recent years and its future development plan, fully expressing confidence in the Asian market, Chinese market and China Southern Airlines Group.

It is understood that the forum also introduced six important signed cooperation projects of China Southern Airlines in 2022, including ARJ21 aircraft turnover parts sharing service, B787 equipment hourly payment guarantee service, aircraft engine standard oil procurement, aircraft delivery management innovation cooperation, LEAP-1A spare development procurement, LEAP-1A fleet leasing guarantee service, etc., focusing on expanding aviation maintenance supply guarantee channels, improving flight support efficiency and operation quality, Deeply study the sustainable development measures of the industry, work together with industry chain partners to promote the "green flight" plan of civil aviation, and boost the construction of world-class aviation maintenance service brand.

The forum fully demonstrated that China Southern Airlines adheres to the concept of sharing opportunities, seeking cooperation and common development, grasps the once-in-a-lifetime historical opportunity of China's air transport, aviation maintenance and manufacturing industries, and strives to build a world-class aviation maintenance service brand. Next, depending on the advantages of scale and maintenance resources, China Southern Airlines Locomotive will work closely with upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, share the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, actively build an aviation maintenance ecosystem, boost the high-quality development of Guangzhou airport economy and the airport maintenance industry in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, and make due contributions to China's efforts to accelerate the construction of a strong civil aviation, transportation, manufacturing, and science and technology country. Editor/Wang Xia