UK aerospace supplier seals £38m deal with low-cost airline

Engineering group specialising in extreme environment components and smart sub-systems for aerospace, defence and energy markets, Meggitt, has sealed a £38m deal with Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air.

The companies have finalised the terms of a long-term agreement for Meggitt to supply wheels and brakes, worth more than £38m over the lifetime of this all-encompassing, material maintenance agreement which will start from 2021.

Meggitt will provide its latest NuCarb® carbon brake, and a new wheel specifically designed to improve the performance characteristics of the aircraft for Wizz Air’s future A321neo fleet.

These next generation technology performance enhancements are key to enabling the A321neo aircraft’s higher gross take-off weight and will bring significant operating cost and reliability improvements.

NuCarb® is the very latest in carbon technology and is produced in Danville, Kentucky, in one of the world’s most modern carbon manufacturing facilities.

Wizz Air is currently committed to 110 A321neo aircraft with options for a further 90 and will begin taking delivery of these aircraft in 2019.

Meggitt has been working with the AMRC in Sheffield, the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Coventry, the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), and with IBM providing the digital architecture, and has developed new technologies, such as the M4 digital factory programme, which enables each plant to make a much wider array of low-run products.