Facing supply chain issues and the rising costs of third-party MRO providers, European Union-based low-cost carriers are exploring strategies ranging from investment in in-house maintenance to closer partnerships with third-party companies.

Avia Solutions Group subsidiary FL Technics and Polish Aviation Group - PGL unit LS Technics, both of which provide MRO services for low-cost carriers, confirm the trend towards "more control" over maintenance among LCCs but emphasise that in-housing is not a goal in itself, just a means to an end.

"That trend is not just for having maintenance in house, but to have a bigger control of what is happening with their base maintenance operations here in Europe," chief executive of FL Technics, Žilvinas Lapinskas, told ch-aviation.

"For LCCs, the key priorities today are fleet availability, operational predictability, cost control and planning flexibility," Marcin Świegocki, managing director of LS Technics, added. "In-housing is just one possible approach. The same objectives can be achieved through long-term, deeply integrated partnerships with external MRO providers, based on availability and performance."

This comes shortly after four largest LCCs in the EU outlined in separate interviews with ch-aviation their strongly diverging approach to maintenance.

Ryanair's in-housing

Ryanair Holdings, which already does the majority of its airframe maintenance in-house, is now in the final stages of selecting locations for two engine maintenance shops.

"It's imperative for us that we set up our own engine shops before 2028. They would be up and running by late 2027 or early 2028. 85% of the cost of engine maintenance is spare parts, and we will buy those directly from the engine manufacturers at deep discounts. And then we'll train our own labour," chief executive Michael O'Leary explained to ch-aviation earlier this year.

ch-aviation data shows that Ryanair already has its own base maintenance facilities at Kaunas International, Sevilla, Wroclaw, Malta International, and Madrid Barajas. It also has an exclusive maintenance agreement with independently owned Prestwick Aircraft Maintenance, a company with facilities at Shannon, Glasgow Prestwick, and Frankfurt Hahn. While the location of the first of two planned engine maintenance shops has not yet been announced, reports suggest that Sevilla and Sosnowiec in Poland are in the running.

In February, the airline announced an agreement with CFM International to support the in-housing of engine maintenance, which includes a commitment to buy spare engines and parts worth around USD1 billion per year. The capital expenditure for the engine maintenance facilities is expected to reach an additional EUR500 million euros (USD585 million). Meanwhile, Ryanair continues to invest in airframe maintenance shops, including a recently announced GBP40 million pound (USD54 million) expansion of the Prestwick facility.

While costly, these investments are already paying off, O'Leary believes. They allow the maintenance bill to stay flat despite industry-wide price inflation. The executive concedes that expenses will grow, but remains confident that in-housing of engine maintenance will mean Ryanair's costs will increase much more slowly than those of its rivals.

Rival strategies

While none of the large European LCCs matches Ryanair's commitment to in-house maintenance, easyJet Group also has an ambition to rely less on third-party maintenance.

"At the moment, we've got 25% of our heavy maintenance covered. We covered our line maintenance and we've covered our base maintenance. We brought all that in house. We bought the SR Technics facility in Malta International. We'll continue to look [for acquisitions]," the CEO of easyJet Group, Kenton Jarvis, told ch-aviation during a recent A4E summit in Brussels.

The easyJet parent owns an in-house MRO subsidiary, easyJet Engineering and Maintenance, with base maintenance facilities at Berlin Brandenburg and Malta. It is also in the process of buying Adria Tehnika at Ljubljana, although that transaction is currently on hold due to an ownership dispute between the current and former shareholders of the Slovenian company.

Jarvis said that the airline aimed for a 50% share of in-house airframe maintenance. However, it has no plans to invest in engine maintenance, even though the CEO "sees the rationale" of what drives Ryanair's strategy. Its main third-party base maintenance providers include Lufthansa Technik at Malta, SAMCO Aircraft Maintenance at Maastricht, Hangar 901 at Erfurt, Bird Aviation at Larnaca, 2Excel Engineering at Lasham, and Atlantic Aviation Group at Shannon, ch-aviation data shows.

Third-party reliance

Wizz Air Holdings will continue to rely on third-party providers. The Wizz Air parent's chief executive József Váradi told ch-aviation that insourcing is a limited option because maintenance is not the airline's core task. He said the airline would be open to closer partnerships instead of building up its own facilities.

"Our relationship [with Wizz Air] goes beyond traditional maintenance services and focuses on integrated operational support and fleet availability," LS Technics' Świegocki confirmed. "In this context, we also do not exclude the potential evolution of such cooperation towards a joint venture model in the future."

The LCC relies primarily on LS Technics, as well as Aeroplex, FL Technics, Romaero, and Lufthansa Technik.

Volotea (V7, Barcelona El Prat) also believes that third-party providers serve it well. Chief executive Carlos Muñoz told ch-aviation that the airline has "always run competitive tenders" for maintenance, and has no plans to change this strategy. "Our cost base is very, very, very low. The cost of operating the fleet makes us very competitive. So I don't see us changing that. And it's not only scale-driven. Even if I had already, all of a sudden, 100 planes, I'm not sure if I would do [in-house maintenance]," he said.

Stability and control

Lapinskas underlined that instead of a uniform drive towards in-housing, LCCs, like other airlines, are frustrated with delays and lack of control, which can dent their bottom line if aircraft are unavailable during the peak season.

"Airlines are not taking more in house, but they want to be sure, when they reach a certain number of aircraft in their fleet, that they will get the slot for the next base maintenance season. The demand from airlines is growing. So if some MROs an airline was dealing with for years would like to increase the price for a million reasons, but the airline doesn't want that price to be increased, that MRO will go with other customers. The airline, simply, will not get slots somewhere in Europe, and then they will be in big trouble," the CEO of FL Technics explained.

He flagged that strong seasonality in Europe makes an already tight market even more constrained, as demand for base and heavy maintenance is concentrated in the winter months.

"We are seeing a broader shift in the role of MRO," Świegocki added. "The traditional model of an external maintenance provider is no longer sufficient. MRO is becoming an integral part of the operator’s integrated system, covering network planning, fleet management, component and engine availability, as well as operational efficiency and reliability. Strategic cooperation with key customers operating large fleets and generating high volumes of work helps mitigate revenue seasonality on the MRO side, which is typically inverse to the seasonality experienced by airlines."

However, as airlines struggle with delays, MRO providers are under cost pressures of their own. Lapinskas pointed out a tight labour market for mechanics. Shortage of staff and competition for certified mechanics can lead to a "dramatic" and unpredictable rise in wages, difficult to pass on to customers under long-term contracts. "The customers will not agree to a long-term price escalation of 10-15% per year. But I cannot tell my people that I will not increase the salary because I have a fixed five-year contract with 2% price escalation," he explained.

Challenges are most acute in base maintenance, Lapinskas opined. In this segment, wages and staff availability reflect pricing much more strongly than in the components business or engine maintenance, which has price escalation built in into the OEM deals.

"Delays and cost increases in the MRO sector are not solely the result of MRO providers’ performance, but rather reflect the pressure on the entire aviation system, including limited engine availability, supply chain disruptions, and a shortage of qualified personnel," LS Technics CEO Tadeusz Stachera added.

This drives the market towards short-term contracts, which can be an additional factor driving airlines to invest in more strategic in-house maintenance. However, Volotea's Muñoz highlighted that the airline strategy remained anchored in long-term contracts with third-party MRO providers. Its base maintenance providers are Aerotechnic Industries and Atitech, although ch-aviation data shows some base maintenance events with FL Technics and others too.

Cost benefit

Ryanair Holdings' maintenance expenses in the first nine months of the recently ended financial year 2026 stood at EUR392.6 million (USD459 million), or around 3.9% of all operating expenses. This excludes the maintenance-heavy January-March period, however. Its rivals are spending proportionately more. In the same period, Wizz Air Holdings' maintenance costs stood at EUR329.6 million (USD386 million), but due to the airline's smaller size this corresponded to a 7.6% share of all operating expenses.

easyJet Group, whose financial year terminates at the end of September, recorded GBP451 million (USD608 million) in maintenance expenses, amounting to 7% of operating costs. Volotea, which is privately owned, does not publish detailed annual accounts.

Stachera pointed out that with MRO being a major bottleneck for the industry, price is no longer the sole factor driving the strategy of cost-conscious carriers. "The market is shifting away from a purely price-driven approach towards models focused on availability, reliability, and total cost of operations," the CEO of LS Technics said.

New investment

Despite the bottlenecks, Lapinskas does not believe Europe needs more base maintenance facilities. FL Technics recently acquired Job Air Technic with its Ostrava base, and is not looking for more acquisitions in Europe. However, as airlines are looking for more opportunities to gain more control over their maintenance processes, FL Technics remains open to closer partnerships.

"If somebody would propose to us to have a joint operation agreement or a joint venture with an airline which has a certain number of aircraft, and they require the maintenance, we would discuss it. Without guaranteed revenue and the load for that facility, I would say 'no' to new investment in Europe," Lapinskas said.

LS Technics has a different strategy, however. "The fleet in Europe is growing, aircraft are being operated more intensively, and the service life of aircraft is extending, due, among other things, to delays in the delivery of new aircraft. All of this increases the demand for base maintenance, which requires additional hangars and service slots. Current capacity is insufficient for the coming years and new investments are not only justified but absolutely necessary," Stachera said.

The Polish MRO firm is expanding its presence at Gdansk and Katowice Pyrzowice and aims to establish facilities at Port Polska, a planned new central hub replacing Warsaw Chopin set to open in 2032.