Following a multi-million euro investment, MAAS Aviation, recognized experts in aircraft painting and exterior coatings, has opened a new purpose-built paint shop at Kaunas Airport (KUN) in Lithuania, adjacent to FL Technics’ MRO facilities. Combining base maintenance, painting and parking/storage in one location is an attractive proposition for leasing companies. It minimizes aircraft ground time which offers economic value and less complexity for lessors.
MAAS Aviation’s ultra-modern Lithuanian facility is a twin-bay narrow body paint shop capable of accommodating up to two A321-sized aircraft simultaneously and is the first of its kind in Lithuania. It grows the company’s global footprint to eleven best-in-class paint shops and increases its overall MRO capacity in Europe by 40%.
The 40% increase in MAAS Aviation’s European MRO capacity enables the company to service more airlines and lessors particularly during peak seasons. The MRO repainting sector is normally cyclical with winter peaks and for many years MAAS has juggled capacity constraints during these periods due to demand from its long-term contracted customers.
In the build up to establishing this new facility MAAS Aviation has experienced a dynamic growth trajectory surpassing 180% over the past six years. In 2015 the company had three paint shops in two locations and 130 aircraft were painted. In 2021, MAAS will operate eleven paint shops (three in Hamburg; two in Kaunas; two in Maastricht; one at Fokker Woensdrecht; and three in Mobile, Alabama) and the company forecasts painting up to 300 aircraft.
