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RNS Number : 1881X  Ryanair Holdings PLC  18 March 2026

RYANAIR OPENS ITS LARGEST MAINTENANCE HANGAR AT MADRID AIRPORT

 

€25 MILLION INVESTMENT REVITALISES BARAJAS' INDUSTRIAL AREA

& CREATES 700 HIGH-SKILL JOBS

 

Ryanair, Spain's No.1 airline, today (Wed, 18 Mar) inaugurated its new €25
million maintenance centre at Madrid Barajas Airport - the largest in the
Ryanair network. With capacity for 7 aircraft, this 22,000 m²
state-of-the-art facility, located in the airport's industrial area, will
create 700 high-skill jobs, including engineers, mechanics, and support roles,
further strengthening Spain and Madrid's position as a leading hub in European
aviation.

 

This new hangar adds to Ryanair's existing maintenance facility in Barajas,
bringing its total capacity to 8 aircraft lines of maintenance. In addition,
Ryanair also operates a modern 5-bay aircraft maintenance centre in Seville,
opened in 2019, which was extended in 2021, and represents a further €30
million investment in Spain.

 

The Madrid facility is now a central part of Ryanair's Maintenance Engineering
network with 7 EU locations, with Madrid performing both routine A-checks
along with more specialised engineering work. Ryanair is also working closely
with Madrid's best aviation schools to train and recruit engineers and
mechanics for this new maintenance centre under its in-house Engineer
Development Programme.

 

Ryanair, which is Spain's largest airline, is also one of Spain's largest
foreign investors, and a key contributor to the country's tourism and
industrial sectors. With 62 million passengers p.a in Spain, a fleet of 109
aircraft across 11 bases, two maintenance centres, a recently commissioned
crew training facility, along with an IT innovation hub in central Madrid,
which in total brings Ryanair's investment in Spain to €11bn.

 

Ryanair is Spain's largest airline but its ability to continue investing and
growing in Spain is running out of road due to deteriorating competitiveness
on airport access costs that will accelerate the migration of routes, tourism
and jobs to more competitive, lower cost airports elsewhere in Europe. While
Aena's recent +6.5% increase had a significant impact on traffic cuts at
Spain's regional airports, the latest proposal to increase charges by +21%
(before inflation) over the next five years will undermine competitiveness and
growth across the entire Aena network of Airports. Sadly, this programme of
increases will establish Spain as a high-cost tourism destination closed to
economic growth and job creation. This trend has accelerated with Ryanair
growing this summer at its lowest level in many years of just 0.5%. Spain
needs efficient cost-effective airports with competitive pricing to attract
airline investment that in turn, boosts economic growth. If Spain wants to
continue to grow airline investment, traffic, tourism and jobs, the Govt must
take action to open up existing empty capacity at airports along with
competitive pricing, which will incentivise all airlines to grow with lower
charges. The Govt must also ensure that extensions to larger airports are
competitive and not gold-plated facilities.

 

Today's inauguration was attended by Jose Luis Martinez-Almedia, Mayor of
Madrid, as well as local authorities and representatives from Spain's aviation
sector.

 

Ryanair DAC CEO, Eddie Wilson, said:

"We are pleased to announce another major Ryanair investment in Spain; Today
we inaugurate our new 22,000 sqm state-of-the-art 7-bay maintenance hangar in
Madrid - the largest across the Ryanair network - representing a €25 million
investment and creating 700 high-skill, high-pay engineer and mechanic jobs,
supported by our industry-leading Engineer Development Programme. This new
facility will play a crucial role in supporting Ryanair's operations as we
grow to 800 aircraft and 300 million passengers by 2034.

 

Ryanair is not only Spain's largest airline, but one of Spain's largest
foreign investors, with 109 aircraft based across 11 bases, two maintenance
centres (Seville and Madrid), a state-of-the-art crew training centre, along
with an industry-leading IT innovation hub in central Madrid, amounting to a
total investment of €11bn.  Our operation provides over 10,000 direct
Ryanair jobs and supports a further 400,000 jobs, contributing over €28bn to
the Spanish economy (2% GDP). However, our ability to continue investing and
growing in Spain has almost topped out due to Spain's deteriorating
competitiveness, which is progressively getting worse. Regional airports with
huge potential to grow are being held back by excessive charges, and major
airports like Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga and Alicante, are now going to be
extended at exorbitant cost to justify Aena's +21% charge increase plus
inflation by 2031, despite the sector projecting sufficient traffic growth to
absorb these wasteful investments without raising airport fees. This trend has
recently accelerated with Ryanair set to grow this summer at its lowest level
of just 0.5% in Spain, when Ryanair is growing by 11% in Morocco and 9% in
Italy.

 

Spain is missing the key factor that so many Govts and airports across Europe
have recognised, that rapid traffic, tourism and jobs growth come from low
cost, efficient facilities with competitive airports, not gold-plated
facilities where prices continuously rise. If the Spanish Govt wish to reverse
this trend and continue to grow airline investment, traffic, tourism and jobs
for Spain, they must change policy to have a cost competive airport pricing
system to open up existing spare capacity at airports where Aena has failed
with its existing pricing strategy."

 

ENDS

For further information

please contact:               Ryanair Press Office

T: +353-1-9451799

E: press@ryanair.com (mailto:press@ryanair.com)

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