diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 7d3f9c71..fb782ce5 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
   - ask user to create "maintenance incident" request when submit request is failing at release project
   - "osc my patchinfos" is showing patchinfos where any open bug is assigned to user
   - "osc my" or "osc my work" is including assigned patchinfos
+  - "osc branch --maintenance" is creating setups for maintenance
 
 0.133
   - add --meta option also to "list", "cat" and "less" commands
diff --git a/osc/commandline.py b/osc/commandline.py
index 97bef418..d7e0dd62 100644
--- a/osc/commandline.py
+++ b/osc/commandline.py
@@ -2797,6 +2797,8 @@ Please submit there instead, or use --nodevelproject to force direct submission.
                         help='Create a hidden project')
     @cmdln.option('-m', '--message', metavar='TEXT',
                         help='specify message TEXT')
+    @cmdln.option('-M', '--maintenance', default=False, action="store_true",
+                        help='Create project and package in maintenance mode')
     @cmdln.option('-N', '--new-package', action='store_true',
                   help='create a branch pointing to a not yet existing package')
     @cmdln.option('-r', '--revision', metavar='rev',
@@ -2860,7 +2862,9 @@ Please submit there instead, or use --nodevelproject to force direct submission.
                            return_existing=opts.checkout, msg=opts.message or '',
                            force=opts.force, noaccess=opts.noaccess,
                            add_repositories=opts.add_repositories,
-                           extend_package_names=opts.extend_package_names, missingok=opts.new_package)
+                           extend_package_names=opts.extend_package_names,
+                           missingok=opts.new_package,
+                           maintenance=opts.maintenance)
         if exists:
             print >>sys.stderr, 'Using existing branch project: %s' % targetprj
 
diff --git a/osc/core.py b/osc/core.py
index c07de01e..b0ea86d8 100644
--- a/osc/core.py
+++ b/osc/core.py
@@ -4353,7 +4353,7 @@ def aggregate_pac(src_project, src_package, dst_project, dst_package, repo_map =
     print 'Done.'
 
 
-def attribute_branch_pkg(apiurl, attribute, maintained_update_project_attribute, package, targetproject, return_existing=False, force=False, noaccess=False, add_repositories=False, dryrun=False, nodevelproject=False):
+def attribute_branch_pkg(apiurl, attribute, maintained_update_project_attribute, package, targetproject, return_existing=False, force=False, noaccess=False, add_repositories=False, dryrun=False, nodevelproject=False, maintenance=False):
     """
     Branch packages defined via attributes (via API call)
     """
@@ -4371,6 +4371,8 @@ def attribute_branch_pkg(apiurl, attribute, maintained_update_project_attribute,
         query['ignoredevel'] = '1'
     if add_repositories:
         query['add_repositories'] = "1"
+    if maintenance:
+        query['maintenance'] = "1"
     if package:
         query['package'] = package
     if maintained_update_project_attribute:
@@ -4402,7 +4404,7 @@ def attribute_branch_pkg(apiurl, attribute, maintained_update_project_attribute,
     return r
 
 
-def branch_pkg(apiurl, src_project, src_package, nodevelproject=False, rev=None, target_project=None, target_package=None, return_existing=False, msg='', force=False, noaccess=False, add_repositories=False, extend_package_names=False, missingok=False):
+def branch_pkg(apiurl, src_project, src_package, nodevelproject=False, rev=None, target_project=None, target_package=None, return_existing=False, msg='', force=False, noaccess=False, add_repositories=False, extend_package_names=False, missingok=False, maintenance=False):
     """
     Branch a package (via API call)
     """
@@ -4415,6 +4417,8 @@ def branch_pkg(apiurl, src_project, src_package, nodevelproject=False, rev=None,
         query['noaccess'] = '1'
     if add_repositories:
         query['add_repositories'] = "1"
+    if maintenance:
+        query['maintenance'] = "1"
     if missingok:
         query['missingok'] = "1"
     if extend_package_names: