Rolls-Royce has started construction of a new London Heathrow Service Centre that will provide specialist maintenance and support services for commercial aero engines.

When fully operational, the new facility will employ up to 80 people, with 40 transferring from the existing Rolls-Royce Heathrow facility, which it will replace.

They will service Trent aero engines providing round-the-clock support to customers.

The facility will include two new buildings, including a state of the art engine workshop, which will total nearly 95,000 square feet

This is four times larger than the existing facility, enabling teams to work on up to 13 aero engines at any one time, double what was previously possible.

Russell Buxton, Rolls-Royce, president - Civil Large Engines Fleet said: “The London Heathrow Service Centre will form an integral part our global network of service centres, and will enable us to deliver truly world class support for our customers.

“Rolls-Royce continuously invests in technology and infrastructure to expand the scale and efficiency of our operations to enhance the services we deliver to our growing customer base.”

The new service centre is expected to commence operations in early 2013.