easyJet has opened its first continental maintenance hangar facility at Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport (BER). The airline’s European fleet of 135 aircraft will be maintained at the new four-bay hangar.
The 10,000 m² hangar, which can hold four A321 aircraft at once, aims to improve the efficiency of operational processes and save maintenance costs. It will also provide more jobs for highly skilled engineers and maintenance workers, with more than 100 easyJet employees responsible for the supervision and management of aircraft maintenance activities.
Captain David Morgan, Chief Operating Officer, easyJet, views the opening as “a great milestone to start the year with,” as easyJet prepares to return its first aircraft maintained at the hangar into operation.
“The NEO aircraft is equipped with the latest Descent Profile Optimisation (DPO) technology which is one of the ways we can achieve substantial and permanent carbon emission reductions by enabling the most efficient descents,” he said.
The hangar was built in accordance with the German Building Energy Act Gebäudeenergiegesetz (GEG). The project, which began construction in September 2019, was supported by the Wirtschaftsförderung Brandenburg and easyJet’s chosen partner, MRO Facilities, who managed the design and construction.
The opening ceremony, representing the 20 million Euro investment in the Berlin-Brandenburg region, was hosted by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Steinbach, Minister for Economic Affairs, Labour and Energy of the State of Brandenburg, Aletta von Massenbach, Chairwoman, Management Board of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH, and Thomas Haagensen, Group Markets Director, easyJet and Managing Director, easyJet Europe.
Morgan looks ahead to future maintenance operations at the facility: “We look forward to welcoming many more aircraft from our modern easyJet Europe fleet in the coming years as we continue to renew the fleet, with the ultimate ambition to transition our fleet to zero-carbon emission aircraft,” he said.
