Rolls-Royce breaks ground on new Turkish maintenance centre

Rolls-Royce has broken ground on a new state-of-the-art aero engine maintenance centre in Turkey.

The engineering giant and Turkish Technic, a leading maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider, have started work on the project at Istanbul Airport.

The scheme will reinforce Turkish Technic’s standing at the forefront of the maintenance industry, while complementing Rolls-Royce’s existing MRO footprint and address growing long-term demand for new civil large engines.

The new facility, targeted to be operational by the end of 2027, will enable Turkish Technic to deliver comprehensive maintenance services for Trent XWB-97, Trent XWB-84, and Trent 7000 engines, which power the Airbus A350 and Airbus A330neo aircraft respectively.

With a planned capacity of 200 shop visits per year, the facility is expected to be one of the largest in the region.

It will provide services to Rolls-Royce TotalCare customers, as well as the Turkish Airlines fleet.

Rob Watson, president of civil aerospace at Rolls-Royce, said: “Breaking ground on Turkish Technic’s new state-of-the-art facility is a significant milestone for our global MRO network, which supports our TotalCare customers around the world.

“We’re significantly increasing our global MRO capacity by 2030, and this announcement marks another step on that journey.

“It reinforces our strong partnership with Turkish Airlines – whose fleet of Airbus A350s will be supported by this facility – and underlines Turkish Technic’s commitment to become a leading provider of civil large aero engine MRO.”

In late 2023, Turkish Airlines placed an historic order for Airbus A350 aircraft, making the airline the world’s largest operator of the Trent XWB engine.

It included an order for 120 Trent XWB-84 engines and 40 Trent XWB-97 engines.