Gallery: European MRO Facility Expansions In 2024

Tarmac Aerosave opened its fourth maintenance hangar in Teruel, Spain Oct. 8. The 87,000 ft.² hangar can accommodate one Airbus A380 or four A320s. Tarmac Aerosave says the new hangar was driven by high demand, and its original A380 hangar at the site is fully booked for the next two years. 

Lufthansa Technik is planning to build a new facility in southwest Europe that will focus on components for aircraft and engines. Lufthansa Group CEO Carten Spohr announced on Sept. 30 that the company is targeting a location in Lisbon, Portugal, with backup plans in Spain.

In late September, SR Technics officially opened a new maintenance facility for Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines in Zurich and reactivated its second test cell there. The location is the 17^th active repair shop in Pratt’s GTF network, and it inducted its first engine in July.

Satair opened a new parts services and logistics facility in Hamburg in late September. Satair says the 610,000 ft.² warehouse is the largest in its network and will cater to tools and large parts. The company also operates a warehouse in Hamburg’s Fuhlsbuttel region catered to small- and medium-sized parts.

Embraer subsidiary OGMA opened a new Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engine shop in Alverca, Portugal in July. The company expects the shop to triple its revenues once it reaches its full capacity of around 240 engines per year. By the end of this year, OGMA expects to induct between 20-25 GTF engines.

AerFin moved its UK headquarters to a new facility at St. Modwen Park, Newport this summer. It says the 115,000 ft.² facility will significantly expand its MRO and storage capacity, doubling its engine MRO capacity to around 20 quick-turn shop visits annually and expanding its UK storage capacity by a third.

Safran Aircraft Engines opened a new CFM International Leap engine repair shop near Brussels Airport in June. The facility will initially focus on quick-turn services for Leap 1A and 1B engines and ramp up to include module maintenance by 2027. The company also plans to grow staff in Brussels to around 470 people by 2027.

Ryanair opened a second hangar at Kaunas Airport in Lithuania in May. It invested €20 million (approximately $21.7 million) in the 8,000 m² (approximately 86,000 ft.²) hangar, which it said would create more than 200 new positions in Kaunas. Meanwhile, Ryanair also opened a second hangar at its Wroclaw Aircraft Maintenance Service subsidiary in Poland. It invested €25 million (approximately $27.1 million) in the 8,300 m² (approximately 89,000 ft.²) hangar, which it said would grow jobs at the site by 300.

Luxair opened a new aircraft maintenance hangar at Luxembourg Airport in May. The approximately 54,000 ft.² hangar can accommodate up to three Boeing 737s simultaneously and features several maintenance workshops, storage areas for spare parts and administrative offices.

UK-based maintenance provider Storm Aviation moved its base maintenance operations from London Stansted Airport to Glasgow Prestwick Airport in May. It obtained the Prestwick hangar through its 2021 acquisition of Chevron Technical Services. Storm Aviation says the relocation is a strategic move to streamline operations and improve efficiency. It continues to provide other services such as line maintenance and training from Stansted.

In April, J&C Aero opened a new cabin interior hub in Vilnius, Lithuania that will provide full-cycle cabin retrofit programs, including aircraft cabin interior development, certification, production and installation. J&C moved its in-house design organization approval, production organization approval, continuing airworthiness management organization and Part 145 teams to the new hub, as well as its units for electrical, livery, 3D printing and sewing.

C&L Aerospace opened a new 20,000 ft.² parts warehouse in Leipzig, Germany in March. The facility will store aircraft parts for ATR, Embraer and Saab aircraft to support customers in Europe and Northern Africa.