Doug Maclean - Aviation Editor
Ryanair have today, 31st October, celebrated the opening of a huge £5 million investment in an engineering Training Academy based at Glasgow Prestwick airport. Ryanair now Europe’s no.1 airline, are creating 500 highly skilled jobs in the locality, including licensed engineers, mechanics and support staff.
This investment sees the addition of state-of-the-art classrooms, workshops and installation of their own training aircraft on site. The site will train highly qualified engineers and mechanics to support the maintenance of Ryanair’s fleet as it grows to 800 aircraft by 2034. Ryanair say the new Academy underpins Ryanair’s commitment to the UK and Scotland as it “further drives connectivity, inbound tourism & employment.”
In 2002 Ryanair announced their first major investment at Prestwick when they pledged to build a maintenance hanger at Prestwick. The initial layout allowed 3 Boeing 737s to be worked on at the same time. When the hanger opened in 2004, with assistance from The UK and Scottish Governments, over 180 high quality permanent jobs had been created. The sum invested was about £10 million. The quality and efficiency of the work done at Prestwick has justified more and more investment. The current complex is believed to have 6 bays where heavy maintenance takes place. Further expansion to 8 and possibly 9 work bays is planned as Ryanair’s fleet of Boeing aircraft grows.
Today’s announcement compliments the maintenance hanger complex. The new investment involves a large upgrade of the local training facility. It is believed that Ryanair will use the training centre at Prestwick to train engineers for multiple bases across Europe.
CEO of Ryanair, Eddie Wilson, said:
“As the number 1 airline in Europe, we are delighted to announce an investment of £5 million in a Training Academy at Prestwick Airport creating 500 new engineer and mechanic positions at Prestwick. The upgrade includes new classrooms, workshops, and training facilities, including a training aircraft on site and we look forward to investing in Ayrshire with state-of-the-art training facilities to support our 6 bay Heavy Maintenance Facility.”
Today’s opening is another major milestone on the journey that has seen Prestwick airport turned into a profitable, complex and multi skilled, multi business site. The aerospace companies based at Prestwick provide thousands of stable and very well paid careers to the growing workforce.
