Emirates goes big with new MRO facilities at Dubai World Central

Dubai International Airport (DXB) will remain Dubai’s main point of entry for the next two decades, but things are moving. Literally. The announcements from both Emirates and flydubai that they will build new, huge maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facilities at Dubai World Central (DWC) could be perceived as the start of the eventual transition of many if not all aviation activities. Emirates announced on Tuesday that it will invest $950 million in the first phase of new MRO facilities at DWC. The airport is also known as Al Maktoum International Airport, which is part of the Dubai South area Southeast of downtown Dubai. Flydubai announced a $190 million investment in another new MRO facility in the same area. It was expected that the Dubai government would announce this week that it will continue with the masterplan of the new mega-airport at DWC, which was put on hold just before the pandemic. Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths told AirInsight in June at the IATA AGM that a decision was close to re-start the project. But at the Dubai Airshow, he said that the government and Dubai Airports are still working on a number of scenarios and that a decision would come later. Flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith said on Wednesday that the decision to continue has already been taken. “There is nothing new here.” DXB to exceed pre-pandemic levels For the time being, DXB will continue to be developed and modernized. The airport expects to exceed pre-pandemic passenger numbers and reach 86.8 million this year. DXB processes 7.6 million passengers per month and expects growth to continue into 2024. “To accommodate growth and to achieve the company’s ambition of revolutionizing the guest journey at DXB, Dubai Airports is undertaking a strategic project to expand infrastructure capacity while enhancing operational efficiency. With a current capacity of 100 million passengers annually at DXB, the deployment of innovative technology, expansion, and refurbishment of existing infrastructures and more efficient use of its space and resources is expected to propel the airport’s capacity to 120 million,” Griffiths said in a media statement on Wednesday. Emirates A380 A6-EUH is in for a C-check and cabin refurbishment at DXB. These heavy checks will all move to DWC in 2027. (Richard Schuurman) Moving heavy maintenance to DWC While DXB will be able to accommodate growth well into the next decade, Emirates Engineering and flydubai will need more MRO capacity in the second half of this decade. This is unavailable at DXB, hence the decision to invest in new facilities at DWC. During a visit to Emirates Engineering on Thursday, AirInsight was briefed on the growth initiative by its head, Ahmed Safa. Emirates currently has seven hangars or bays for heavy maintenance work plus four for lighter checks available at the opposite side of the passenger terminals at DXB. Some lighter work is also done outside the hangars on the apron. A large part of this capacity is required in the next few years for the cabin refurbishment project Phoenix which covers 67 Airbus A380s since late last year and 53 Boeing 777s from July next year. The cabin refurbishment is often combined with 6-year C-checks for some A380s, while older aircraft are brought in for 12-year C-checks. Then there are wing spar repairs for all A380s every three years, which Emirates has also outsourced to Airbus in Toulouse and GAMECO in Guangzhou. This should keep the A380s flying well into the 2030s and maybe even early 2040s. Emirates said earlier this week that it has extended its contract with Lufthansa Technik in Manila for another 23 C-checks in the coming three years. With 310 aircraft on order, including 205 Boeing 777-9s and -8s, 35 787-8s and -10s, 65 Airbus A350-900s, and five 777Fs, Emirates will grow its fleet in the coming decade. The current maintenance facilities will be way too small to cater for all these new aircraft. This also applies to flydubai, which ordered 30 787-9s this week. Ready in 2027 The $950 million contract to construct new MRO facilities at DWC was signed on Tuesday during the Dubai Airshow. “Groundbreaking is expected to start in July next year. The construction is expected to take 45 months, so the new facilities should be ready in Q3 or Q4 of 2027. We will have eight maintenance hangars and one paint hangar available as part of phase I of the project,” Safa explained. Only heavy work will be done inside the hangars. Lighter “casualty’ checks will be done outside at the ramp, as is already the case at DXB. “We want this as close as possible to the terminals for efficiency. If we have to tow aircraft from the gates all the to the hangars, that would take probably a good part of the day to cross five runways,” said Ahmed Safa. Taxiing at DXB can sometimes take up to three hours. Emirates has seven hangars or bays for heavy checks at DXB. This will grow to eight at DWC in 2027 and twenty once Phase II has been completed. This is A380 A6-EDK for a 12-year check. (Richard Schuurman) There will also be a facility for engine runs and up to 20 support workshops. Plus a huge warehouse for storage of numerous parts. During our tour at DXB, AirInsight was shown the current warehouse facilities that keep spare parts valued at over $1.0 billion. The new warehouse will embrace lessons learned from companies like Amazon and include a high level of automation, said John Walker, Vice President of Base Maintenance. Once completed, Emirates Engineering will move all heavy maintenance work on the A380s and 777s to DWC. DXB will be used for lighter checks of the new Airbus A350s and later the Boeing 787s, which will be years away from their first C-checks. There will also be capacity for third-party work, especially cabin upgrades or even cargo conversions. In 2021, the airline placed an order for the conversion of four 777-passenger aircraft into freighters with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The announcement this week is only for Phase I. As Safa and Walker pointed out, Phase II includes an extension with another eight hangars for heavy maintenance plus four for lighter checks. “Phase I is just the first bit of a very comprehensive plan for an end-to-end engineering presence at DWC. This will double our size in the future. Ultimately, at DWC we will have 22 hangars, 20 maintenance, and two for painting, plus at least two engine areas,” says Ahmed Safa.

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