Texas Blade Repair Shop

Airbus Helicopters has officially opened its expanded Blade Repair Shop at its U.S. headquarters in Grand Prairie, Texas, strengthening support for operators across the region. The company first announced its plan for transforming North American rotor blade repair in August of 2025. One year later, the upgraded facility is fully operational, marking the transition from promise to delivery.

Inside the expanded Texas Blade Repair Shop

Driven by customer feedback, this investment expands the Grand Prairie facility's blade repair footprint by 50%. Building on nearly six decades of presence in Texas, it reinforces the site’s position as a center of excellence for blade repair dedicated to keeping regional fleets flying.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony brought together governmental stakeholders, including Grand Prairie Mayor Ron Jensen, Council Member Rodney Anderson, Council Member Jorja Clemson, and Carmen A. Ayala (staffer for U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett), alongside Airbus Helicopters leadership, commercial operators, defense stakeholders, and community partners.

Texas Blade Repair Shop inauguration

"For decades, Airbus has helped strengthen Grand Prairie's place in the aviation industry through its continued investment in innovation, advanced technology, and workforce. We are excited to celebrate another chapter of that success and proud to see our partnership continue to grow,” said Grand Prairie Mayor Ron Jensen.

Inside the expanded regional hub

The upgraded shop increases physical capacity for the H135 and H145 helicopter fleets, keeping critical air medical, law enforcement, utility, and military aircraft mission-ready.

It also introduces next-generation tools to streamline processing. The team of nearly 30 expert technicians, who service over 1,000 rotor blades annually for North America operators, now utilizes:

Upgraded processing tanks, automated milling machinery, and mobile workstations streamline the shop flow to eliminate bottlenecks and speed up repairs.
New bonding tools for H135 and H145 leading-edge repairs (the high-wear front section of the blade) boost capacity for the shop's highest-volume models
Integrated digital tracking: The launch of SmarTrack, an SAP-integrated digital system featuring live Work-in-Progress (WIP) tracking that allows technicians to immediately locate and prioritize blades across the shop floor.

Inside the expanded Texas Blade Repair Shop

"These investments strengthen our local capabilities to better serve our U.S. and Canadian customers,” said Bart Reijnen, President of Airbus Helicopters, Inc. and Head of the North America region. “By expanding our Texas footprint and introducing new technologies, our repair technicians can accelerate repairs and service more blades simultaneously. This expanded capacity puts us on track to cut overall repair turnaround times in half by 2028.”

“When a blade sustains damage that can’t be repaired in the field- whether from environmental exposure, operational stress or physical impact like foreign object damage and erosion - it gets sent to this facility for inspection and repair,” said Maria Aguirre, Head of MRO at Airbus Helicopters in North America. “Here, our expert team fully restores its aerodynamic integrity before returning to service.”

Inside the expanded Texas blade repair shop

The Blade Shop expansion is one of several major investments the company has made to enhance customer support in North America. The company first overhauled its Dynamic Component Repair (DCR) center and installed a new dynamic test bench in 2024 and 2025.