Deutsche Aircraft has opened the final assembly line that will build its D328eco regional turboprop, marking the shift from prototype work in Bavaria to serial production in Saxony. Leeham News reported that the Leipzig/Halle Airport facility was inaugurated on September 29, 2026, after a β¬100 million investment in a site of about 651,217 square feet with capacity for up to 48 aircraft a year.
The start-up is modernizing the 1990s Dornier 328 twin-turboprop with Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127XT-S engines and a Garmin G5000 Prime flight deck. Oberpfaffenhofen remains the home of engineering, flight testing and certification, while Leipzig becomes the center for assembly, additional flight testing and customer deliveries. New employees are due to begin work at the Saxony plant in the coming months.
Chief executive Nico Neumann said the Leipzig opening means that, for the first time in more than 60 years, every phase of the aircraft lifecycle will be integrated under a German aircraft program. The company presents the move as both an industrial milestone and a symbol of returning final assembly of a civil airliner to Germany.
Deutsche Aircraft rolled out its first D328eco prototype in May 2025 and has targeted EASA CS-25 and FAA Part 25 type certification in time for service entry in the fourth quarter of 2027. Beyond the new engines and avionics, the design uses Acron Aviation flight recorders and stretches the original airframe by about two meters to raise seating toward the 40-seat class with three-abreast cabin geometry.
The market question is whether a 40-seat turboprop can win orders against ATRβs established 42-seat family. Cirium fleets data cited by Leeham showed ATR holding only 18 unfilled ATR-600 orders at the time of the report, underscoring how narrow the active turboprop backlog has become. Deutsche Aircraftβs bet is that fuel burn, short-field performance and European industrial policy will reopen demand that jet regionals left behind.
Sierra Nevada Corporation created Deutsche Aircraft in 2020 after earlier ownership through 328 Support Services, which had held the Dornier 328 type certificate. That corporate lineage matters because the D328eco is not a clean-sheet design; it is a revitalized airframe with modern systems aimed at regional airlines, governments and specialty operators that still need 30- to 40-seat economics.
Opening a final assembly line does not by itself certify the airplane or fill the order book. It does, however, change the programβs public posture from development photography to a production plant with automated logistics and paperless processes. For suppliers, airports and potential airline customers, Leipzig is now the place to watch for the first customer-delivery aircraft.
If Deutsche Aircraft can convert the Leipzig capacity into firm airline commitments before entry into service, the D328eco would become one of the few Western turboprop programs still advancing toward commercial service this decade. The September 29 inauguration is the clearest evidence yet that the company intends to meet that 2027 service-entry window with a working German production line.
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