Ryanair Announces £40 Million Expansion at Prestwick Maintenance Facility

Ryanair has announced an expansion of their maintenance facility at Prestwick Airport, which will expand Ryanair’s existing Prestwick operation from 6 to 10 bays, making it the carrier’s largest heavy maintenance hangar.

Ryanair Celebrates the Expansion of Their Prestwick, Scotland Heavy Maintenance Facility - Courtesy Ryanair

On Friday (March 20, 2026), Ryanair announced a £40M expansion of their maintenance facility at Prestwick Airport, which will see the construction of a new 11,938 square-meter 4-bay heavy maintenance hangar and additional component workshops.  This will expand Ryanair’s existing Prestwick operation from 6 to 10 bays, making it Ryanair’s largest heavy maintenance hangar, and further strengthening Prestwick’s position as a key aircraft maintenance and training hub in Ryanair’s network.  The expansion will support over 1,200 highly skilled engineering and mechanic jobs in Ayrshire, providing significant long-term employment and training opportunities for local talent.

In Friday’s announcement, Ryanair’s CEO, Eddie Wilson, said,

“As Europe’s No.1 airline, we are pleased to announce a further £40 million investment at Prestwick Airport, expanding our existing maintenance facility from 6 to 10 bays and creating 450 new highly skilled engineering and mechanic jobs, including 60 apprenticeships.

This new state-of-the-art, 4-bay hangar and component workshops will make Prestwick our largest heavy maintenance facility, and a key part of how we will maintain and support our fleet as we continue to grow to 800 aircraft and 300 million passengers by 2034.

“Today’s announcement builds on the £5M investment and 500 jobs delivered with our Prestwick Training Academy, opened in October 2024. Together, these investments underline Ryanair’s long-term commitment to Scotland, to high-quality engineering and mechanic jobs, and to developing the next generation of aviation talent here in Ayrshire.

“We thank DFM Forbes and the Scottish Govt, the UK Govt, South Ayrshire Council, Scottish Enterprise, and Prestwick Airport for their support and partnership on this expansion. Their focussed approach in backing this project has been crucial in enabling us to grow Prestwick into a major heavy maintenance and training hub that will deliver skilled careers and economic benefits for many years to come.”

Ryanair Holdings, plc is Europe’s largest airline conglomerate and the parent company of Buzz, Lauda, Malta Air, and Ryanair DAC. The airline carries over 150 million passengers annually with more than 2,500 daily departures.  Ryanair serves over 200 destinations in 40 countries with a fleet of nearly 600 aircraft including Boeing 737NGs, Boeing 737-8200 Gamechangers and Airbus A320s with Lauda.  Ryanair has maintained a stellar safety record for nearly 40 years and prides itself on being “Europe’s greenest cleanest airline group,” promising customers a reduction in CO2 emissions of up to 50 percent, versus the ‘Big 4 EU major airlines.’  The company continues to grow across Europe and plans on carrying 300 million passengers annually by FY 2034. 

Source: Ryanair