Portakabin, the UK’s leading modular building specialist, has provided multiple buildings for a new flagship aircraft maintenance hangar at Gatwick Airport for Europe’s leading airline, easyJet.
Portakabin worked in partnership with easyJet and alongside Rubb Buildings who designed and installed the 5,490m2 twin span hangar, which has a modular steel frame fitted with 8,700m2 of insulated PVC membrane. The facility can accommodate up to two aircraft for light-base overnight maintenance.
Around 1,000m2 of accommodation were provided by Portakabin for 30 on-site staff to facilitate the maintenance of easyJet’s fleet of aircraft, which is carried out overnight, seven days a week.
Six Portakabin buildings were installed inside the hangar structure for two maintenance control stations, an additional office area, a locker room, toilets, showers and changing facilities, and a workshop. A larger modular building is located externally, immediately adjacent to the hangar, for the storage of parts and tooling on the ground floor with offices, a canteen and a meeting room above. It features large picture windows overlooking the airfield and a vinyl wrap with easyJet and Lufthansa corporate branding.
Both the hangar and the Portakabin buildings were designed and constructed to give easyJet a fast, flexible and cost-effective solution for at least five years. All the buildings can then easily be dismantled and re-purposed if required. This approach will allow easyJet to respond to potential future developments and uses for the site at Gatwick Airport.
Commenting on the project, Tim Coles, Project Manager at easyJet said: “Our experience with Portakabin has been excellent. This latest project at Gatwick Airport was managed really well, which is critical when working on an airport with very limited timescales.
“The Portakabin team was professional and highly organised. We are very impressed with their buildings, which have created an excellent base for our maintenance team. The approach of using Portakabin buildings also gives us the flexibility to relocate the facilities, as and when required.”
Portakabin reduced work on site to around four weeks and installed the buildings in a challenging working environment on a highly secure and constrained site. The team collaborated with multiple contractors and the whole maintenance facility had to be erected and ready for use as quickly as possible.
The Portakabin buildings will be on hire for at least five years and were supplied complete with staircases, air conditioning, fire alarm system, emergency lighting, and entrance canopy.
Portakabin has undertaken more than 10 interim modular building projects for easyJet including at its head office in Luton, at Gatwick Airport and Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
