Magnetic MRO’s leadership says the company’s newly opened Tallinn hangar represents a decisive move toward higher‑value, capability‑led maintenance, driven by airline demand for greater reliability and more predictive, digitally enabled operations.
"What we are seeing across the market is that customers are looking for partners who can support both aging fleets and newer-generation aircraft with predictable turnaround times, rather than simply offering additional slots,” says Marko Männiste, managing director at Magnetic MRO.
Männiste notes that airlines are still flying their existing fleets at high intensity, delaying retirements, while simultaneously bringing newer‑generation aircraft into service. He says this mix of factors places a premium on technical capability, certification and execution reliability.
“Consequently, the focus has shifted beyond simply increasing capacity alone to ensuring we can support the aircraft types and maintenance profiles our customers will require in the coming years,” he says.
Speaking to Aviation Week, Männiste was asked how the Tallinn expansion enhances Magnetic MRO’s capabilities and what new skills the upgraded hangar requires, given the company’s existing expertise on narrowbody platforms such as the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.
“As fleet profiles evolve, our focus is on broadening that capability to cover a wider technical scope, particularly for 737 MAX and [Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan]-powered A320 aircraft,” he says. Männiste adds that the expansion allows Magnetic to handle a broader range of check types and aircraft configurations within the same operational footprint, rather than fundamentally changing the nature of its base maintenance activity.
To achieve this, Magnetic is gradually expanding its team with more licensed B1 and B2 engineers who have the necessary experience. “These skills build on our existing workforce profile and are essential to meeting future customer requirements as newer-generation aircraft make up a larger share of European narrowbody fleets,” he says.
In parallel, the new purpose-built maintenance hangar has freed up the existing facility to operate as a fully dedicated 2,852 m2 (approximately 31,000 ft.2) painting hangar, rather than sharing space with heavy maintenance as before.
The dedicated painting hangar can handle all narrowbody types, including larger models like the Airbus A321 and Boeing 737 MAX 10. Where Magnetic previously managed around 10 paint jobs each summer, the stand-alone facility now allows annual throughput to rise to roughly 35 aircraft. “This allows us to move from a seasonal summer operation to a full-year service,” says Männiste.
The added capacity in Tallinn allows Magnetic to scale up critical checks and embed more digital, data‑driven processes into its operations. Männiste says the initial phase centers on digitizing and unifying maintenance support tasks that were previously handled in separate, manual workflows.
Meanwhile, Filip Stanisic, managing director of Magnetic Engines, hints at a push into CFM International CFM56 and Leap engine module work. He notes a marked change in market demand, especially for the CFM56 fleet, where aging engines are driving a sharp rise in module‑replacement requirements. “This has created strong demand for module-level work rather than full engine overhauls,” Stanisic says.
With a new balancing machine due by the end of the first quarter, Stanisic says the company will be fully equipped to perform CFM56 module repairs and replacements, both in-house and at customer sites.
Concurrently, the number of Leap engines in operation continues to grow rapidly, Stanisic reports. “As a natural next step, we are preparing to support selected Leap quick-fix repairs, allowing us to serve customers across both legacy and next-generation engine platforms,” he says.
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