MAEL - 50 years in the making
Monarch Aircraft Engineering (MAEL), the engineering division of Monarch, is this year celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Since its foundation on 30th March, 1967, MAEL has serviced an estimated 10,000 aircraft, employed over 3,000 people and trained 800 people through its highly reputed apprenticeship scheme.
MAEL, which was founded a year before Monarch Airlines, was established at Luton Airport where it remains headquartered today, opening a hangar at the airport in 1968 and commencing jet aircraft maintenance in 1971.
Chris Dare, Managing Director at Monarch Aircraft Engineering, said: Over the past fifty years, Monarch Aircraft Engineering has developed into one of the world’s leading aviation maintenance operations that today is the choice of hundreds of airlines across the globe. We are proud to have played a role in the development of thousands of people, growing their engineering skills and knowledge through training and experience."
Fast forward fifty years and MAEL today has line maintenance facilities at Gatwick, Luton, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds Bradford, Edinburgh, Nice, Malaga, Warsaw and Kiev, all capable of providing line maintenance support of all levels on Airbus, Boeing, Embraer and Bombardier aircraft types.
The company’s base maintenance operation has grown too from Luton to also include a state-of-the-art facility at Birmingham Airport which opened in 2013. Between them, the two hangar facilities are capable of accommodating up to twelve lines of heavy maintenance across Boeing, Airbus, Embraer and Bombardier types.
Today, MAEL is also a leading MRO for new technology aircraft, including the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, having provided maintenance support to the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner operating in Europe. MAEL is one of a small number of Boeing-approved GoldCare providers worldwide.