LOTAMS Targets Further Growth Despite Geopolitical, Cost Challenges

In the face of ongoing regional challenges, LOT Aircraft Maintenance Services (LOTAMS)  plans to invest further in infrastructure, including beginning construction on a new MRO facility later this year.

Opening Aviation Week’s MRO BEER 2023 conference in Warsaw on June 14, Aleksandra Juda, president and CEO of LOTAMS, says the MRO is pursuing expansion, despite the “rising cost of utilities like heating energy and gas, rising cost of material and parts; labor shortage and rising labor costs.” These issues have been ongoing for the Central and Eastern Europe region for a year.

The ongoing war in Ukraine, which started in Feb. 2022 following the Russian invasion, is also continuing to impact the regional MRO industry. “The companies in the region have felt political tension and instability due to the war in Ukraine near our border—all the difficulties which I mentioned have had an influence on us,” she says.

Despite these challenges, Juda describes the present picture as “green” for LOTAMS, which has continued to grow and welcomes a steady flow of maintenance work into its hangars. “We survived the pandemic and the situation in Ukraine, and we are growing,” she says. LOTAMS grew revenues around 50% year on year last year compared to 2021 and 21% in comparison to the pre-COVID year of 2019.

Juda cites the company’s optimization initiatives over the last year, focused on efficiency, mechanic training and digitalization of paper as contributing to its robustness in the face of these market challenges.

After the traditionally busy summer 2023 season, LOTAMS plans to commence building its planned new facility in Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport in southeast Poland, which Juda expects to be ready by the first quarter of 2025. Once completed, the hangar will have capacity for two widebodies simultaneously or five narrowbody aircraft at one time.

The new hangar will add to LOTAMS' five hangars located at its site near Warsaw Chopin Airport. Services include base and line maintenance along with aircraft painting with Part-21 and Part-147 certifications.

Juda says that while it plans to invest further in infrastructure and areas such as sustainability, it is wary of the challenges its customers are facing in areas such as supply chain disruptions and rising costs of labor, utilities, parts and materials. 

However, she identifies the labor issue as the key challenge for not just LOTAMS but the whole aviation industry. “We need more leaders, engineers and technicians,” she adds.