Aircraft management and maintenance group Sirio today launched operations in a new hangar at Milan Linate Airport that will provide support for sister company Flexjet Europe. The new facility is the 11th hangar in the Italian airport’s business aviation complex, almost doubling the size of Sirio’s infrastructure there to 10,625 square meters (114,000 sq ft).
The Hangar X facility was designed and built by SEA Prime, which runs the business and general aviation facilities at both of Milan's airports, Linate and Malpensa. The new building expands the total available hangar space owned and operated by the company at Linate to 30,000 square meters (323,000 sq ft).
The purpose-built structure will allow SEA Prime's tenant Sirio to expand and consolidate its capacity under one roof, providing covered parking for Flexjet aircraft and line maintenance. The building features underfloor heating and a crane, as well as benefitting from natural light on all four sides of the building.
Sirio was established as a maintenance organization in 1993 and is approved to support 11 different types of business aircraft made by Bombardier, Embraer, Dassault, and Gulfstream. The Flexjet fleet consists of a mix of Embraer Praetor 600 and Gulfstream G650 aircraft. In addition to the Milan location, the operator also has bases at Farnborough Airport in the UK and in Malta.
In addition to its support for the Flexjet fleet, Sirio works for third-party operators with over 40 specialist staff on its team. Between 2021 and 2022, it increased the number of maintenance man-hours worked from 11,500 to 20,000.
Attending an opening ceremony in Milan, Kenn Ricci—principal of Directional Capital, which is the parent company of both Sirio and Flexjet—said maintenance is the business aviation industry’s linchpin. “For Flexjet, having expansive, industry-leading maintenance support within the same group differentiates us based on safety, reliability, and efficiency, allowing us greater control over our fleet and dispatch reliability,” he said. “This follows our model in the U.S. where we have a fully dedicated in-house maintenance resource for Flexjet following the acquisition of Constant Aviation this year. Together this gives our global organization the largest maintenance support structure in business aviation.”
SEA Prime said the investment in new facilities is in response to growing numbers of business aircraft. “SEA Prime’s investment follows the double-digit business aviation growth in 2022 of 20 percent versus 2021, which continues in the first quarter of 2023, and meets the increasing demand for premium hangar space,” said company CEO Chiara Dorigotti.
The new hangar was built to the latest BREEAM standards for environmental sustainability. The building was categorized as "excellent" with a score of 84.7 percent for sustainability features, such as wastewater recovery, recycling processes, and solar energy panels across the entire roof.