British Airways is set to acquire the Boeing hangar facility and MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) business at London Gatwick.
This will secure jobs at the site and expand BA’s presence at the airport, BA says.
The airline says it will benefit customers by bringing additional skills, expertise and facilities into the business which support the BA operations at Gatwick.
The acquisition will create a new wholly-owned engineering subsidiary called British Airways Engineering Gatwick (BAEG).
BAEG will join BA’s existing engineering operations in South Wales (BAEW) and Glasgow (BAMG).
Current Boeing staff who work at the facility will, subject to a consultation process, be transferred to the new subsidiary in Q2 of this year.
Longer-term, BA says it expects to expand the new facility at Gatwick.
British Airways Chief Technical Officer, Andy Best, said: “This will help us to be the very best in the business by bringing in the skills and expertise of former Boeing colleagues and adding a large, modern hangar to our portfolio of Engineering facilities.”
“It will support the reliability of our entire fleet, which is good news for our customers and colleagues.”
The Boeing facility will significantly boost British Airways’ engineering operation at Gatwick.
This includes continuing minor maintenance on 777 aircraft and some scheduled heavy maintenance work on its A320/321 fleet.
Additionally, it will enhance its capacity to carry out unscheduled repair work, as well as providing additional maintenance cover.
It will reduce the need to ferry aircraft to other operational bases.
