Aviatic MRO is to invest €20 million to create one of the largest aircraft maintenance facilities in Europe at Šiauliai International Airport in Lithuania. The airport is located three hours from all major European hub airports and has one of the longest runways in the Baltics.

The company will provide maintenance services for the Airbus A320 Family and Boeing 737 Classic/NG, up to D checks. Šiauliai was a major Soviet military base and so has parking for up to 30 aircraft. Using existing facilities, operations will start in a few months but an eight-bay narrowbody hangar will be constructed and put into service in 2021. It will include a workshop area, storage facilities, sheet metal shop, brake repair facilities, painting areas, warehousing, and administration. Up to 1,000 jobs will be created.

In October, Aviatic MRO signed a cooperation agreement with the international leasing company World Star Aviation, which owns nearly 100 Airbus A320 Family, A330-200/300 and Boeing 737-300/400/800 and 777-300 aircraft.

The CEO of Aviatic MRO, Arturas Liudkevicius, said: “Air traffic is growing worldwide and there is more demand than ever for top quality MRO services. Lithuania is an ideal location close to some of the busiest flight hubs in the world.“

This follows an announcement in October that MAAS Aviation is due to start construction this winter of a dedicated multi-bay aircraft paint facility at Kaunas Airport, Lithuania. The company has rented an area located in the northern part of the airport following an auction. The multi-million euro investment will see a 12,000m² hangar start operations at the end of 2020. The paint bays will be able to cater for single-aisle aircraft up to Airbus A321/Boeing 737 size. The project is a further development phase of aircraft MRO activities at the second largest airport in Lithuania.