The CEO of Industria de Turbo Propulsores, S. A. (ITP) and the Vice-President and Economic Councillor of the Combined Communities of Castilla la Mancha signed an agreement for the creation of a helicopter engine maintenance and assembly centre in the Albacete Aeronautics Park. This centre is expected to begin its activity towards the end of this year.
The new ITP maintenance centre in Albacete will mean an initial investment of 15 million euros, including land acquisition, civil engineering work and the establishment of special teams for turboshaft maintenance. Initially, the project is expected to generate up to 80 jobs, including qualified maintenance technicians, assembly workers and executive officers to manage the tasks to be carried out. The proposed installations will be based within a 5,000 square metre area, potentially expanding to 7,000 in response to future growth, and the platform which is to be initially constructed will cover 2,600 square metres.
Fundamentally, the project is based in the maintenance needs of the programmes for the NH90 and EC 135 helicopters. ITP already works with both the engine suppliers for the NH90, for which the Spanish Council of Ministers has approved a purchase order for 45 units potentially rising to 100. In 2007, the engine finally chosen for this multi-tasking NH90 helicopter was the General Electric (GE) CT7-8F5.
GE already made a commitment with the Spanish Government for the maintenance of an initial figure of over 45 engines.
