British Airways (BA/BAW) has announced it has acquired the Boeing Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) site at London Gatwick Airport (LGW/EGKK).
The site will be formally known as British Airways Engineering Gatwick (BAEG) and operated as a new, wholly owned subsidiary of British Airways.
The acquisition also secures the jobs of the Boeing employees at the facility that work there as they will be transferred to BAEG subject to what BA calls employee an “employee information and consultation process”.
British Airways will use the MRO facility to in-source scheduled heavy maintenance for its Airbus A320/321 fleet as well as light maintenance on its Boeing 777 fleet based at Gatwick.
British Airways Chief Technical Officer, Andy Best, said: “Today’s announcement 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.
“We’re proud of our Gatwick operation and this will give us a stronger presence which underlines our commitment to the airport.
”I’d like to welcome our new colleagues to British Airways, including highly-skilled and experienced Licensed Aircraft Engineers. I’m delighted that, subject to consultation, they will be joining the BA family and I hope to be recruiting more people in the future.”
British Airways expects to increase the workforce at Gatwick in due course creating more skilled jobs as it looks to expand its engineering operation.
By carrying out some 777 maintenance at Gatwick it will also reduce the need for its Gatwick-based jets to be flown to other BA sites such as British Airways Maintenance Cardiff (BAMC) which is also being upgraded to cater for Airbus A350 aircraft.
Boeing originally built the facility for Boeing 737-800 freighter conversions.
