Construction group Sisk has won a near €100 million contract to build a hanger that will house Boeing's biggest aircraft at Gatwick airport in Britain.
The US aerospace giant is building a maintenance base at Gatwick airport outside London to service craft flown by European airlines using the British hub.
The Irish group's British arm, John Sisk, said on Tuesday that it had won the contract to build the hangar. The deal is estimated to be worth £88 million (€99m).
Reports named Sisk as the preferred bidder for the work late last year. The group did not comment at the time, but it was known to have tendered for the work.
The contract is for the hangar building, offices, apron and taxiway connection, perimeter roads and service yards within the airport’s airside area.
Standing at 32 m, the hangar is designed to house two Boeing 777x craft, which will be the biggest aircraft built by the US group when it enters service over the next two years.
The facility will also hold a larger number of smaller aircraft, such as the Boeing 737s used by the likes of Ryanair and its rival Norwegian Air International.
Work will take 14 months, and will involve 3.200 tonnes of steel lifted over 10,000sq m of concrete cast within a short distance of the runway.
Boeing predicted that construction of the hanger would create up to 475 jobs when it announced details of the project in 2016.
Experience
Ajaz Shafi, managing director of Sisk UK South, said the group looked forward to collaborating with Boeing, using experience gained from "previous schemes at Birmingham International Airport, Luton airport and Dublin airport".
Sisk shut elements of its British business in 2016.
Stephen Bowcott, chief executive of the British subsidiary, told UK trade publication Construction Enquirer that it would have turnover of £280 million (€314m) in 2017 and make a profit.
John Sisk & Son is one of Ireland’s biggest builders. It made up one third of the consortium that built the M17 Gort-Tuam motorway, and was the lead contractor on the reconstruction of the GAA’s Páirc uí Chaoimh in Cork.
The company was recently named preferred bidder for a €210 million development at Great Ormond Street children’s hospital in London.
John Sisk is also one of the contractors on Crossrail, a high-profile rail development in London.
