DAE to build maintenance facility at new airport

Dubai: Dubai Aerospace Enterprise will build a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility to cater to a massive influx of new airlines and charter carriers expected for Dubai World Central Airport, its chief executive said yesterday.

Bob Johnson said the facility would have a "significant" footprint at the new airport, but said final plans have not yet been completed.

The Dubai government is building World Central at a cost of $30 billion to accommodate 120 million passengers annually. DAE, a $15 billion state-backed firm, will move into its new headquarters at World Central around 2009 or 2010.

DAE's maintenance hub could rival and even overtake the established MRO operators in Europe and North America, Johnson said.

Rob Mionis, DAE's chief executive for manufacturing and engineering, said the Middle East represents just four per cent of the global MRO industry, or $1.5 billion. But he called the region the fastest growing worldwide.

Over the next decade, the regional maintenance market will grow at 6.6 per cent per year. By contrast, the rest of the world will grow at 3.6 per cent, he said.

Opportunity

"Airlines in the Middle East tend to outsource the majority of the work, most notably their engine work, where only 10 per cent of the work is done locally. So we see that as a huge opportunity for us," Mionis said.

At the same time, DAE is expected to have operations in the maintenance repair, and overhaul business throughout the globe. In 2006, DAE purchased a 30 per cent stake in SR Technics, a Zurich-based maintenance firm and this year purchased US-based MRO firms Standard Aero and Landmark Aviation.

The company intends to leverage the brand recognition of these multi-billion dollar firms, and may open up a World Central facility for SR Technics by 2012.