None other than Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić has come to Paris specifically to visit MTU, her country’s new German investor: MTU Aero Engines is planning to build a new repair facility in Nova Pazova near Belgrade. Scheduled for completion by 2022, the shop will pave the way for an aviation cluster there. “Skilled and highly motivated people are our most important asset when it comes to Serbia establishing itself as an attractive location for the global aviation industry,” Brnabić says.

Global is also the right word to describe the network operated by MTU Maintenance. In the course of its 40-year history, the company has grown to more than 5,000 employees — and this figure continues to rise. The maintenance business accounts for over 50 percent of the total revenue generated by MTU Aero Engines AG. In 2018 alone, MTU Maintenance won more than 300 new contracts worth 4.4 billion US dollars, 46 of which were with new customers. Its shops and locations in Germany, the Netherlands, China, Canada, Poland and Malaysia handled well over 1,000 shop visits and almost 1,500 further orders, thus utilizing their capacity to the max.

The decision to establish the site in Serbia is the latest example of MTU’s worldwide expansion of its maintenance network. Others include the recently opened logistics facility in Ludwigsfelde and a brand-new maintenance location in Jasionka, Poland. The latter is for the Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines and is being built by EME Aero, MTU’s joint venture with Lufthansa Technik (LHT). The ASSB repair facility, also an MTU-LHT joint venture, is being expanded as well. The work is scheduled for completion in 2020 and the shop will employ some 700 people in the near future. At MTU Maintenance headquarters in Hannover, it’s not just shop floor space that’s being increased; the administrative buildings are also being extended in a project set to run through 2021. Last but not least, operations in Vancouver are about to move to a new, larger location.

In 2019, MTU Maintenance will be celebrating not only its 40th anniversary, but also its 20,000th shop visit. By 2027, it plans to expand its capacity by 50 percent.