Emirates building biggest aircraft maintenance facility

Emirates is constructing a new Dh1.3 billion Engineering Centre on the north side of Dubai International Airport.

The centre will be the world's biggest civil aviation maintenance facility. Being constructed on a 55 hectare site, it is Emirates' largest single facility investment.

When completed, the new centre's eight hangars will form the largest free-spanned structures in the Middle East, with roofs supported by 110-metre long single spans.

France's Aeroports de Paris (ADPi ) and Fraser Nag Partnership are the main consultants to the landside facilities.

"This is the airline's largest single-facility investment ever and among our most cost-effective ones," said Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman of Emirates Group.

"It will make us proud by setting a new standard of excellence for the industry, but more importantly it will support the growth of the Emirates fleet with in-house capability that will also be a significant source of revenue, thanks to third-party servicing contracts."

The current engineering hangar, close to Airport Expo, will be demolished to pave way for the construction of Concourse 3, once the new Engineering Centre is completed.

The new centre will service the Emirates fleet including the additional 99 aircraft on order, including 45 Airbus A380-800 superjumbos, 29 Boeing 777-300ERs and 20 Airbus 340-600s, and also will accommodate third party maintenance.

It is scheduled for completion by the beginning of next year, when the airline's fleet is forecast to have increased to more than 80 aircraft.

Contractors for the centre are in the process of lifting thousands of tonnes of steel mega-trusses to support the roofs. The heaviest are the arches over the hangar doors, each 95 metres long and weighing 460 tonnes, and requiring four cranes to be lifted into place.

Outside the hangars, the Engineering Centre will have nine dedicated aircraft parking bays, with facilities for refuelling.

In addition to stores, workshops, an office block and multi-storey parking for 1,500 cars, the new centre will include a security building and the Emirates Engineering Training School, which will be re-located from its present home in the Emirates Aviation College.

Facilities for staff will include a canteen, coffee shop, gym and an auditorium.

Staff also will enjoy covered moving walkways between the car park and the hangars.

Huge hangars

More than twice the size of a soccer field

• The Engineering Centre's seven fully air-conditioned hangars for heavy and light maintenance, each 110 metres x 105 metres more than twice the size of a soccer field together with a paint hangar, will cover more than nine hectares or an area equivalent to 17 soccer fields. Emirates' current Engineering Centre has three smaller hangars.
• Each hangar will feature an entrance gate 88 metres wide and every bay will be able to accommodate aircraft of any size, including the Airbus A380, the largest airliner, 73 metres long with an 80-metre wingspan and a tail 24 metres high.
• The hangars will have almost the same dimensions as the A380 facilities specially constructed by Airbus in Toulouse to assemble the plane.
• The huge dimension of the site, adjoining the Dubai Airport Free Zone on the north side of the airport, makes moving quickly from one part of the facility to another a serious challenge. The use of buses, tricycles, golf carts and even Segway Human Transporters is being assessed to find the best way to achieve speedy and safe movement around the centre.