Aquila Aviation Stops Aircraft Production: Future of Spare Parts Uncertain for 250 Planes

German light aircraft manufacturer Aquila Aviation has ceased production of its two-seat aircraft and cut the vast majority of its workforce at its Schönhagen facility near Berlin, leaving the future maintenance of roughly 250 active planes uncertain. AeroTELEGRAMME reported that the Brandenburg-based company let go of 32 employees in August, leaving a skeleton crew of fewer than ten staff members to manage development, purchasing, and finance.

Production Halt and Workforce Reductions in Brandenburg

The final aircraft rolled off the assembly line in August and was delivered to a customer in Germany, according to reporting by the magazine Aerokurier cited by AeroTELEGRAMME. The manufacturing halt follows a turbulent operational history for the company. Founded in 1996 at Schönhagen Airfield, Aquila Aviation has previously undergone two insolvencies and multiple changes in ownership before coming under Turkish control. At its peak, the enterprise employed up to 65 workers in Brandenburg, a workforce that had shrunk to nearly 40 before the August restructuring.

Following the layoffs, Aquila Aviation removed the flagship two-seater from the active product showcase on its corporate website. The company has retained its regulatory approvals as a manufacturing and development organization, but the cessation of active assembly marks a clear end to commercial production of new airframes.

Uncertain Spare Parts Supply for Active Aquila Fleets

Approximately 270 aircraft have been delivered by Aquila Aviation since the type’s inception, with an estimated 250 machines remaining operational across flight schools and flying clubs. These operators now face an open-ended question regarding long-term component availability. While the remaining core team in Schönhagen intends to continue selling spare parts and purchasing components from external suppliers, Aquila has stopped manufacturing certain composite fuselage parts in-house. Aerokurier noted that once current warehouse inventories in Brandenburg are exhausted, the exact pipeline for specialized airframe components remains unclear, and company management has not publicly detailed future supply strategies.

A210 Aircraft Line Supports Active Fleet of 250 Planes

The manufacturer built its reputation primarily around the A210, a composite two-seater that received its formal certification in 2001. That initial model was later succeeded by the updated A211 variant, followed in 2019 by the higher-performance A212. European flight training institutions and aviation clubs consistently favored the aircraft line for its handling characteristics and build quality. With production halted and specific composite structures no longer fabricated on-site, the ongoing airworthiness of the active 250-plane fleet relies entirely on existing stock and third-party vendor parts.