Prestwick Aircraft Maintenance, whose sole customer is Ryanair, is poised to open a facility at Shannon Airport, the Irish Independent reports.
The Scottish aircraft maintenance company currently employs around 500 people in Prestwick and a further 1,300 at other locations in Europe.
Prestwick Aircraft Maintenance has worked exclusively with Ryanair for a number of years and many of its staff work in Ryanair’s technical office in Dublin.
Apart from its Prestwick facilities, the maintenance company has offices in Spain, Poland and Lithuania, in Seville, Wroclaw and Kaunas respectively.
The location of the new Shannon facility – understood as Hangar 5 – will provide a boost to Shannon Airport and the surrounding area, particularly as the Gateway continues its efforts to recover from the effects of the Covid pandemic.
The Shannon Group, which controls Shannon Airport, declined to comment on Prestwick Aircraft Maintenance’s plans.
Ryanair also declined to comment.
Prestwick Aircraft Maintenance will be managed by Ed Cunningham who recently retired from running the company.
However, he and his wife still control the company.
The accounts of the maintenance group’s Scottish unit showed it had sales of £28.4m (€33.8m) over the period 1 August 2019 to the end of 2020. It made an operating profit of £182,000.
Almost all of its sales came from markets outside the UK, the balance sheet says.
“The company continues to intend to maintain its market share and expand its markets where possible,” the directors stated in the financial statements.
“The company has expanded its operations to take responsibility for technical work being carried out at Ryanair’s Spanish Seville hangar and Ryanair’s Lithuanian Kaunus hangar,” they added.
Shannon Airport is already home to significant aviation services provided by Patrick Jordan’s Atlantic Aviation Group.
Last year the company also agreed to take over operations from Lufthansa Technik Shannon.
This brings Atlantic Aviation’s total workforce at Shannon and Brize Norton in the UK to approximately 740.
The combined operations will generate annual sales of around EUR 85 million.
It has a number of customers including Dublin-based ASL and while it has worked with Ryanair in the past it currently does not.
Mr. Jordan bought out Atlantic Aviation, formerly Transaero, in 2015 for €1m from the auditors and pledged €1.5m of working capital for the company.
He also owns 50 percent of Eirtrade Aviation, a Dublin-based company whose activities include aircraft dismantling.
It also has offices in the United States.
Prestwick Aircraft Maintenance has been embroiled in a row with workers after the Covid pandemic hit, when wages were cut by 50 per cent before government financial support was introduced.
The Covid crisis has had a major impact on the global aviation sector.
However, Prestwick has embarked on a major recruitment drive in recent weeks.
https://www.independent.ie/business/ryanair-maintenance-partner-set-for-shannon-jet-operation-41578937.html Ryanair’s maintenance partner to operate the Shannon jet
