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Emirates president Tim Clark.
FARNBOROUGH—Emirates president Tim Clark urged airline supply chain manufacturers to consider embedding their operations in Dubai to ease production bottlenecks.
And major companies should also consider acquiring some of their suppliers to ensure a reliable stream of components, Clark said while attending the show this week. He had, for example, told GE Aerospace that the aero-engine manufacturer should buy a fan blade supplier
Major suppliers are looking at increasing their capability in the emirate, Clark said, and the Dubai government was ready and willing to assist such companies to locate facilities there.
“Dubai is ready; land, labor and capital are all there. The Dubai government is hugely interested in all this and is ready to invest. They will build the whole thing, then lease it to [the suppliers], just to get the manufacturing capability there.”
Once established, production levels would likely be considerably above those of Western countries because of 24/7 operations in the emirate, Clark added.
What this did not address was uncertainty about investing in and establishing factories in Dubai after the US and Israel started a war with Iran that has seen Gulf countries become targets and continues.
Clark also cited Boeing’s 2005 divestment of its aerostructures division, which became the independent Spirit Aerostructures, as an example of what not to do.
“[It was] a catastrophic decision to carve out Spirit for IPO value creation. I could never get it. You have to structure as vertically as possible to get the job done,” Clark said.
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