Lufthansa expands land lease in Clark

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May 21, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s biggest aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider is leasing more land in Clark to expand its available space, as it withdraws a high-value service in Manila.

MRO giant Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP) is preparing to ramp up Clark operations after leasing additional land in the secondary gateway to Manila.

MacroAsia Corp., which owns 49 percent of LTP, said the MRO has signed a lease agreement for a plot located within the Clark International Airport.

Although MacroAsia declined to disclose what the land would be used for, it is expected to boost LTP’s support services outside its main base in Manila. LTP is also scheduled to retire its line maintenance in Manila starting Aug. 1.

Notably, Clark is one of LTP’s bases where it offers line maintenance, together with Cebu, Davao and Kalibo. Airlines require line maintenance to support the day-to-day flights of their aircraft, as this service involves quick checks crucial for airworthiness.

What LTP is keeping in its Manila headquarters is base maintenance, which covers heavy repairs that demand more personnel and time to complete.

In a statement, LTP said it is pulling out line maintenance in Manila following the decision of its long-time client Philippine Airlines to strengthen its in-house capabilities.

However, LTP’s decision to end line maintenance will result in the loss of hundreds of jobs, and will trim its current  employee count of almost 3,200.

Recently, LTP signed a new lease for its 226,000-square meter facility at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). The signing ended almost a year of uncertainty of whether LTP is leaving Manila to look for a cheaper lease.

Under a privately run NAIA, locators are slapped with a monthly lease of P710 per sqm. Given this, LTP would have to pay as much as P160 million a month for its lease, far from its previous rate of P14 million.

In Clark, LTP can lean on a gateway gradually returning to pre-pandemic volume, with the Clark International Airport receiving 2.75 million passengers in 2025.

However, MRO competition in Clark is tighter, with the hub hosting MRO bases for Singapore’s SIA Engineering Co. and Hong Kong’s Metrojet Engineering Ltd.