Airlines: Aegean invests 140 million euros for crew training and aircraft maintenance center

AEGEAN is moving forward with a new investment of 140 million euros to create the first Aircraft Maintenance Service Center and the first Flight Simulator and Crew Training Center, in one of Europe’s first “green” hangars.

As announced today by the president of AEGEAN, Eutychios Vassilakis, this investment creates new dynamics of added value, extroversion and competitiveness for AEGEAN, but also more broadly for the Greek aviation industry.

This new center, which will be operational from next October and has a horizon of completion and maturation in the next five to seven years, will provide pilot and crew training services as well as aircraft maintenance for both Aegean and third-party air carriers.

The Investment

This investment is expected to create 500 new direct and a total of more than 1,100 new direct and indirect high-skilled jobs, while at the same time, the fiscal benefits are also estimated to be significant, as tax revenues and contributions of over 400-450 million euros are expected during the concession. Regarding the financing of the investment, Mr. Vasilakis stated that it will be covered with equity capital and through bank lending, while he also expressed his interest in resources from the Recovery Fund.

The investment includes the price for the concession by the AIA until 2046 of building facilities, their repair, functional and energy upgrade and of course the purchase of modern equipment for the Technical Base of the old Olympic Aviation, which has been inactive for more than a decade.With this investment, but mainly with the utilization and development of the potential and know-how of AEGEAN people, a modern integrated ecosystem of support services for air transport is being created, which will be put at the service of the wider industry. Thus filling, by activating the potential of 85,000 m2 spaces, an important gap in the infrastructure of our country in the provision of third-party support services through two main parallel activities:

The aircraft maintenance function, with the development and gradual staffing of the technical base, with a final capacity of up to 10 positions for heavy maintenance, repairs and checks for various types of aircraft.

The development of a Flight Simulator and Crew Training Center, with an investment in a total of 6 state-of-the-art flight simulators, which will cover training needs for Airbus, ATR and Boeing aircraft, as well as facilities for carrying out special training for cabin crews.

The already existing Olympic Air Engineer Training School, with a strong operating tradition, will also join the same ecosystem, as well as the AEGEAN Pilot Training Organization, which is already operating.