Spantech’s hangar solutions deliver additional MRO capacity quicker and cheaper

Spantech, a world-leading modular hangar provider, has just delivered its latest military-grade MRO solution to SABENA Engineering at Brussels Airport in Belgium. The building was constructed in just four months on site at the airport, using Spantech’s unique modular design and construction process.

In an age where delivering solutions to keep military aircraft fleets flying is essential, Spantech delivers solutions in a fraction of the time of conventional suppliers, working with clients to provide bespoke and adaptable solutions to meet their changing needs.

Demand for military MRO capacity continues to rise

With demand increasing year after year for military aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facilities, there is an ongoing need for additional MRO capacity to be built to meet this growing demand.

Ongoing global geopolitical instability, paired with renewed great power competition, is driving governments to expand and modernize their military aircraft fleets, which in turn drives a need to keep these aircraft serviceable and flying.

More recently, NATO allies have increased their defense budgets while new military aircraft types continue to be introduced. These new platforms require far more complex and costly maintenance than earlier generations of military aircraft, which, as a result, is driving military MRO spending sharply upward.

SpantechAccording to data analysts at Oliver Wyman, military MRO demand will expand 14 times faster over the next 10 years until 2035 than the sector did between 2019 and 2024. 

However, a global shortage of military MRO capacity is stifling this growth, with a lack of capacity, labor, parts, and engineering expertise all contributing to this bottleneck. The net result of all this is more grounded, unserviceable aircraft, leading to fewer mission-capable hours across air forces worldwide.

Closing the time gap

To close this gap and address the need for more MRO capability in the short term, defense forces require infrastructure that can be delivered in months, not years, so that aircraft fleets can remain operational.

While more traditional infrastructure can take years to establish, from the design stage to customer handover, Belgian specialist firm Spantech has the expertise in delivering MRO facilities in just a fraction of the time over more traditional infrastructure solutions.

Pre-engineered MRO hangars can fulfill that requirement by offering facilities at a predictable cost, with rapid delivery, and the resilience required for military operations.

What Spantech has done is refine and adapt to the specific needs and scale of the aviation industry. With its modular constructive technology, referred to as ‘Construction 2.0’ by the firm, Spantech can design, construct, and deliver effective and durable MRO facilities as MRO customers’ demands and requirements shift.

SpantechThis is the same method Spantech has used to build film studios, which are currently used by the likes of Netflix, Sony, and MGM.  

Spantech’s highly specialized expertise and knowledge of the market allow the company to exactly understand the needs of the client and suggest solutions to any challenges that may arise.  

Supplying modular military grade hangars to MRO customers

Pre-engineered modular hangars such as those built and supplied by Spantech can compress timelines dramatically, with proven delivery in months instead of years, allowing for more streamlined and reliable future operations planning by air forces.

Spantech’s MRO solutions can provide hangarage quicker and at a lower and more predictable cost than more traditional hangars, with all critical systems (such as doors, firefighting, overhead cranes, and ground pit systems) fully integrated into the final product.

Spantech“When it comes to aviation projects, most of the value is in what we do on-site. We have a very smart way of putting together the truss system we manufacture off-site,” explained Romain Genot, project manager for Spantech.

“We have a patent on the foldability of our truss system. You have two parallel rafters, which are the structural beams, and are connected by diagonals. You can remove those diagonals and transport the whole system to wherever you need to install it.”  

Genot compared this way of doing things to the more traditional constructive approach other firms follow, which will involve building the hangar one element at a time. According to Spantech, its methodology allows it to complete projects at least three times as fast as some of its competitors.  

Spantech“We do things differently at Spantech. We first assemble the ceiling of the hangar on the ground,” he said. “This is laid out in modules, which are like the ribs of the structure. Then we fit out a liner on top and the electrical wiring. We can also add insulation, sprinkler systems, ventilation, whatever is needed, while on the ground. And then we lift it.”  

Another key difference between a Spantech hangar and a more traditional structure is that the former uses aluminum for its manufacture.

With their patented folded trusses and pre-drilled holes, the same hangar structure could be shipped anywhere in the world with relative simplicity, versus a more traditional structure that may need specialized transportation solutions to get it to the final construction site.

In October 2024, Spantech impressed the MRO industry by announcing that it had completed a huge hangar capable of housing either an Airbus A380 aircraft or four narrowbody aircraft simultaneously at Spain’s Teruel Airport (TEV) in under six months. 

SpantechThe facility, which was built for French maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) firm Tarmac Aerosave, boasts 34-meter-high walls and a 95-meter span, and was built using its Construction 2.0 modular construction technology. You can read more about this project on AeroTime here.

New MRO hangar at Brussels Airport

In addition to the Teruel hangar, another prime example of Spantech’s capability in the field of pre-engineered modular hangars has just been handed over to its customer.

In July 2025, the company completed the handover of a newly constructed MRO hangar at Brussels Airport (BRU) in Belgium to the customer, SABENA Engineering.

The new military-grade MRO hangar, which was completed by Spantech in just four months onsite at Brussels Airport, demonstrates how this model translates defense budgets into aircraft availability more quickly and efficiently.

SpantechThe hangar, measuring 75 by 80 meters, with a maximum floor-to-ceiling height of 25 meters and providing 6,000 m² of floor space, is now Belgium’s largest military-grade MRO hangar.

The new hangar can accommodate either a single widebodied aircraft, such as the Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport, three narrowbody aircraft, or a single example of the Airbus A400M Atlas.

With construction beginning in September 2024, the new facility was constructed on site by February 2025, and following completion, it was handed over to the customer in July 2025 – just ten months from order to handover.

SpantechAs the hangar was built on the footprint of a previous building, little additional groundwork or preparation was required, expediting the overall construction process. With the structure being built by Spantech at assembly plants in Germany and Poland, the hangar sections were subsequently transported to Brussels, where construction began on site.

Being built off-site meant that a reduced workforce was needed in Brussels, resulting in reduced space requirements at the site itself, with minimal disruption to the daily operations at Brussels Airport.

Equally, as the hangar was built on the footprint of a previous building, little additional groundwork or preparation was required, expediting the overall construction process.

The construction process

Below is a Spantech time-lapse video which illustrates the relative simplicity of the new Brussels Airport hangar, built over the course of months versus years for a more conventional hangar structure.

The video shows how several processes can be conducted simultaneously with Spantech structures, such as the ground assembly and lifting of several sections of the structure and fitting panels that would eventually become the walls of the hangar. This method not only reduces construction time but also the need for on-site skilled labor. 

The new hangar, with its 40-ton vertical lift door, is expected to be used for around 60% of the time on military MRO contracts, while the remaining 40% will be taken up by SABENA Engineering’s commercial clients.

Primarily, the company will be supporting the Airbus A400M Atlas fleets of the Belgian and Luxembourg air forces, with line maintenance capabilities as well as heavy maintenance capabilities also on offer.  

Although lifting a door weighing 40 tons (manufactured by the renowned manufacturer Champion Door) may sound like an onerous task, it is one that the team of engineers at Spantech is familiar with. The door is hung and adjusted with millimetric precision by just one employee using a range.

SpantechThis level of accuracy required is achieved by designing and pre-assembling the different components in the factory instead of on-site. The controlled environment of the factory allows Spantech to ensure each component will work exactly as designed on a computer once installed in the building. 

Upon handover, the new hangar was already fully equipped with all the ancillary services required for it to be operational from day one.

These included a fire suppression system, plus heating/air conditioning, and a full electrical installation.  Spantech’s in-house expertise in all these fields resulted in the on-time and on-cost handover of the hangar to SABENA Engineering.

Key benefits of Spantech hangars

Other advantages offered by Spantech hangars include that the modular design and construction allow for a higher degree of future-proofing and state of readiness for other potential scenarios. Primarily, its modular design allows for either scaling (enlargement or adaptation) or even the potential for full relocation, making it ideal for military surge operations and rotating detachments of air force aircraft and personnel.

Spantech’s customers have a choice of materials and revetments to use on the walls and roof. Clients can choose between sandwich panels, polycarbonate sheets, and more cost-effective PVC membranes.

SpantechSpantech’s team can guide clients through the cost and longevity of each option. Additionally, clients can install solar panels on the roof, should they wish.

The new hangar at Brussels Airport, for example, features a ceiling made up of almost 100% translucent uPVC panels, which not only provide a watertight and insulated environment but also allow as much natural light as possible into the workspace below for precision working on military aircraft and their high-tech components.

A changing landscape

With the landscape of military (as well as commercial) aviation ever-changing, the internal flexibility of Spantech’s hangars can allow for a range of maintenance and other projects, some of which may involve maintenance on uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) or electric vertical take-off/landing (eVTOL) aircraft, and any other requirements that may develop in the coming years.     

Moreover, the materials and construction methods used by Spantech lower lifecycle financial costs and also reduce the environmental impact.

Spantech buildings are designed to last up to 50 years, while the company says it can reduce maintenance costs down to one-third of traditional constructions, with Spantech attributing this in great part to the use of membrane liners, which provide good tolerance towards material fatigue and thermal-induced dilation and contraction. It is also due to the use of inherently corrosion-free aluminum in the framework and galvanized steel elements.

SpantechWith the ability to drastically reduce the costs of construction and supply of new MRO capacity, plus being able to supply such facilities a fraction of the time that a conventional hangar can take to design and build, Spantech’s solutions provide infrastructure in readiness for the near future’s MRO requirements, as well as providing adaptability for tomorrow’s fleets of military and commercial aircraft. 

According to Oliver Wyman, the global market for military MRO services will total around $97 billion in 2025, but is forecast to grow over the next decade, as MRO costs grow and spending rises at about 1.4% per year. That means militaries could be spending more than $111 billion on MRO by 2035.

Conclusion

The capabilities offered by Spantech hangars will allow the world’s military MRO providers to adapt their maintenance capacity as air forces develop in the coming years in the face of an ever-changing geopolitical landscape.

Equally, they will be able to do this with a high reliance on construction costs and timelines, with a trusted solution that can beat more traditional hangarage facilities in both arenas.   

Spantech representatives will be attending MRO Europe, being held in London between October 14 and 16, 2025. 

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