MAAS Aviation, the third-largest aircraft-painting provider in the world, has begun the construction of its facility at Kaunas Airport. By evaluating the potential growth in demand, the company has expressed a preliminary intent to further expand its presence at Lithuania’s second-largest airport.
At the moment, a two-part hangar is being built on a 12 000 sq. metre plot of land on the Northern part of Kaunas Airport. The aircraft-painting provider has already received all construction permits, and the first structural parts of the future hangar are already visible above ground. Construction works are set to be complete by the end of this year.
“An airport must be able to firmly stand on its two feet. One foot represents passenger services, the other – cargo or MRO operations. Our strategic path is to put significant focus on the latter by including multiple stakeholders – municipalities, educational institutions and residents – into the process. Amid the Covid-19 outbreak and the grounding of passenger flights, we’re seeing that our strategic decision to focus on MRO development was right. A number of flights continue to operate at our airport solely due to maintenance works being done on those airplanes. Furthermore, several hundred people were able to maintain their job positions”, - states Karolis Matulaitis, the Head of Kaunas Airport.
According to Mr. Matulaitis, the development of MRO infrastructure is beneficial not only as it brings large investments, but also as it aims to create more than 400 highly qualified and well-paid job positions. The Head of Kaunas Airport sees the arrival of these MRO activities both as a challenge and a substantial opportunity.
After MAAS Aviation starts operations, MRO facilities at Kaunas Airport will collectively be able to service 11 aircraft at one time. The soon-to-open aircraft-painting facility will service aircraft commonly seen at Lithuanian Airports – the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 family.
“Currently, Kaunas Airport – the largest MRO centre in the Baltic States – houses multiple MRO providers: KAMS (Ryanair), FL Technics, DOT, Aviabaltika, and OS Technics. With the arrival of MAAS Aviation, our positions as an MRO hub will be further strengthened, also raising the need for qualified staff”, - states Mr. Matulaitis.
The provision of MRO services is part of the technical infrastructure expansion plan. Currently, the Northern apron is being expanded by building a new 325-metre-long taxiway. Using it, airplanes will be able to reach the newly planned hangars. In the future, six additional aircraft parking stands are planned, the development of which will be dictated by the need for aircraft parking services in the past several years.
About Kaunas Airport
Kaunas Airport belongs to the Lithuanian Airports network that manages Vilnius, Kaunas and Palanga airports. In 2019, all airport collectively handled 6.5 million passengers and 62 000 flights.