LONDON—British Airways is set to grow its domestic maintenance presence by acquiring Boeing’s MRO operation at London Gatwick Airport.
The UK flag carrier announced the acquisition Feb. 17, subject to conditions, and says it will establish a new wholly owned subsidiary called British Airways Engineering Gatwick. The business will join its existing network of engineering operations in Cardiff and Glasgow. In addition to being one of its busiest passenger locations, the airline already has a maintenance presence at Gatwick in the form of a line maintenance station.
By acquiring Boeing’s Gatwick facility, British Airways will be adding more capacity to its network. The Gatwick operation has around 160,000 ft.2 of hangar floor space with capacity for two widebodies or up to five narrowbody aircraft configurations.
According to British Airways, the acquisition will enable it to carry out minor maintenance checks on Boeing 777 aircraft while the increased capacity will give it the ability to in-source some heavy checks on Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft. Additionally, British Airways said it will also give it “capacity to carry out unscheduled repair work, as well as providing additional maintenance resilience and relieving capacity challenges at other locations across our network.”
British Airways expects the acquisition of Boeing’s Gatwick business by the second quarter of this year. As part of the agreement, all employees at the MRO operation will transfer across to British Airways. The carrier says once the site is under its control, it plans to further develop the Gatwick operation by adding more skilled people.
Andy Best, CTO at British Airways, says that bringing existing skills into its operation along with the addition of a large and modern hangar will help support the reliability of its fleet, which numbers more than 280 aircraft.
Boeing opened the hangar at Gatwick in 2019 originally to support its fleet care program Goldcare, which the company sunsetted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under Boeing, the facility holds base maintenance capabilities up to C check level, line maintenance, lease transitions and modifications work on 737NG, 737 MAX, 777 and 787 aircraft. Since 2021, the Gatwick location has also operated passenger-to-freighter conversion lines on 737-800BCF aircraft.
Related Content
