Deutsche Aircraft Opens D328eco Final Assembly Line at Leipzig/Halle Airport
Why It MattersBringing serial production, engineering and certification under one national programme signals renewed European ambition in the regional turboprop segment, where capacity has long depended on legacy type certificates and outside suppliers.
What happened
Deutsche Aircraft opened the final assembly line for its D328eco regional turboprop at Leipzig/Halle Airport on 29 September 2026. The company describes it as the first integrated German airliner programme in more than 60 years. The facility covers 60,500 square metres, cost more than €100 million, and can deliver up to 48 aircraft per year at full production rate. The ramp-up is expected to create around 250 new direct jobs, according to the company.
Chief executive Nico Neumann said at the opening: "For the first time in more than 60 years, every phase of the aircraft lifecycle will be integrated under a German aircraft programme." Saxony's Minister-President Michael Kretschmer sent a video message; Federal Transport Ministry state secretary Christian Hirte and Saxony's economy minister Dirk Panter also spoke at the event.
The D328eco is a 40-seat regional turboprop derived from the original Dornier 328, which first flew in December 1991 and went out of production when Fairchild Dornier collapsed in 2002. Deutsche Aircraft's version stretches the fuselage by approximately two metres to 23.3 metres, raises seating capacity by about 20 percent over the original, and is powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127XT-S turboprops rated at 2,750 horsepower each. It is designed to operate on up to 100 percent synthetic fuel.
The first D328eco test aircraft was rolled out at Deutsche Aircraft's Oberpfaffenhofen site near Munich in May 2025. The company has been using a legacy Dornier 328 as a flying testbed for the D328eco's new landing gear, which completed its first development flights in summer 2026. Deutsche Aircraft is targeting certification and entry into service in the fourth quarter of 2027. The Leipzig line handles serial production, while engineering, certification work and component manufacturing remain at Oberpfaffenhofen. Deutsche Aircraft is owned by Sierra Nevada Corporation and holds the type certificate for the Dornier 328 family. The launch customer is Private Wings, a German charter operator, which ordered five aircraft.
Industry impact & what to watch
A new final assembly line tied to an existing type certificate is one route back into regional aircraft manufacturing without a clean-sheet design, and Deutsche Aircraft's use of the Dornier 328 lineage reflects that path. Consolidating engineering, certification and now serial production under one programme, rather than spreading them across suppliers and licensees, is the structural bet behind calling this an integrated national programme.
Regional turnout in this segment depends on matching a stretched, re-engined airframe to operators who need 40-seat capacity on routes too thin for larger jets, and a single named launch customer with five aircraft is a modest start against a stated capacity of up to 48 aircraft a year. Certification timing, entry into service and how quickly the order book grows beyond Private Wings will determine whether the Leipzig facility runs anywhere near that rate.
The next fixed markers are the landing gear qualification following this summer's development flights and the targeted fourth-quarter 2027 certification and entry into service date, both of which will show whether the programme's schedule holds.
