Ryanair has received the environmental authorisation it needs to proceed with a 290 million euro engine maintenance centre at the Port of Seville, clearing the way for construction on a site of over 94,000 square metres in the port's Free Trade Zone.

If built, the facility would give the airline its first in-house engine overhaul capability, reducing its reliance on third-party MRO providers.

Ryanair Holdings is headquartered in Dublin and listed on Euronext Dublin and the London Stock Exchange. For the year ended 31 March 2025, the group reported revenue of 13.95 billion euros and net profit of 1.61 billion euros, carrying a record 200 million passengers.

The Andalusian regional authorities granted the Unified Environmental Authorisation for the project in late August, one of the approvals required before construction can begin.

The planned centre is designed to overhaul up to 200 turbofan engines a year and would create around 950 jobs, 600 of them direct, making it one of the largest single MRO investments an Irish airline has made outside Ireland. The complex would include multiple maintenance hangars alongside administration and support buildings, handling the full cycle of engine disassembly, cleaning, repair, testing and reassembly for Ryanair's Boeing 737 fleet.

Seville was not Ryanair's only option, with the airline weighing a rival site in Poland alongside competing proposals from Italy, the Baltic states and the Czech Republic as it looks to build in-house engine overhaul capacity. Chief executive Eddie Wilson has indicated Ryanair will confirm its final choice between Seville and the Polish alternative before the end of the year, though the Andalusian authorisation gives the Spanish site a head start.

Under the terms of the approval, Ryanair has up to four years to complete construction, with the centre expected to become operational around 2030.

Ryanair already operates engineering and heavy maintenance bases at Prestwick, Shannon, Wroclaw, Kaunas, Dublin and an existing airframe maintenance operation at Seville, though none currently overhaul engines in-house. The Seville facility would fill that gap as the airline's Boeing 737 MAX fleet, and associated engine overhaul demand, continues to grow through the rest of the decade.

For the sector, the project marks a step change in how European low-cost carriers approach engine maintenance, moving core MRO work in-house rather than relying on external providers.

Source: Flying in Ireland / Ryanair / Simply Wall St