German companies purchase property to build aerospace MRO facility

Yesterday, aircraft service provider Lufthansa Technik and engine manufacturer MTU Aero Engines – both German companies – acquired the property for their joint venture, an aerospace maintenance facility they are calling Engine Maintenance Europe (EME) Aero. The site is located near the Rzeszów Airport in a cluster of aviation and aerospace-related facilities known as “aviation valley” in southeast Poland.

The companies estimate that the €150 million project will be up and running by 2020 and will employ 800 people. The facility will service about 400 PW1000G-series geared turbofan engines annually, which power the Airbus A320neo aircraft family.

Both companies already have separate projects in Poland. One of MTU Aero Engines’ subsidiaries has been operating a facility in southeast Poland since 2009 and, after some renovations, is now host to the assembly of low-pressure PW1000G-series engine turbines.

Lufthansa Technik has recently taken an interest in the region, as well – teaming up with engine manufacturer GE Aviation in 2017 to build a facility in Sroda Slaska, a town in the southwestern region of the country, that will overhaul GEnx-2B and GE9X engines.

Outside of this endeavor in Poland, the companies also partnered in a 50-50 joint venture near Kuala Lumpur in 2003, which they call Airfoil Services Sdn. Bhd. (ASSB) – a facility that repairs low-pressure turbine and high-pressure compressor airfoils.