DUBAI—Exponential growth in the Middle East’s aircraft fleet is driving significant demand for aftermarket services in the region. With large aircraft orders from carriers such as Emirates, flydubai and SunExpress, this year’s Dubai Airshow is on track to become the second busiest on record after 2023’s show.
Boeing, which has booked more than 200 firm aircraft orders in the first two days of the show, projects in its Commercial Market Outlook that 3,025 new commercial aircraft will be delivered to the Middle East region by 2042. It expects this activity to generate demand for $335 billion in services, including maintenance, repair, training and spare parts
In anticipation of this future fleet growth, MRO providers in the region are planning capacity expansions to meet demand.
Emirates, which just ordered nearly 100 new aircraft, announced plans Nov. 14 to build a massive new engineering facility at Dubai World Central to handle aftermarket services such as aircraft checks, repairs, cabin modifications and aircraft painting. It says the $950 million investment will create thousands of skilled technical jobs and provide potential to offer MRO services to other airline operators.
Lufthansa Technik Middle East (LTME) signed a three-year base maintenance agreement with Emirates on Nov. 13 that extends its ongoing C check work for the carrier’s Airbus A380s.
“We see a growing need for base maintenance in the Middle East because a lot of aircraft are coming out of parking now,” says Prochie Raj, director of corporate sales for Middle East and Africa at Lufthansa Technik. “The demand is there because the airlines that used to do things in-house have additional work. Unless they outsource, they won’t be able to meet the operational capacity that they require. The demand is increasing, even for narrowbodies.”
LTME is also partnering with the MRO arm of Saudia Group, Saudia Technic, to boost technician skills in the region. As part of a recently announced “MRO Community of Excellence” partnership, it will be hosting Saudia technicians at its Dubai and Hamburg facilities to provide hands-on training focused on component repair for aircraft types operated by Saudia and other carriers in the Middle East.
Etihad Engineering on Nov. 14 announced the opening of its new technical training facility near Abu Dhabi International Airport, which will expand its training capability and capacity from around 600 courses for more than 12,000 trainees annually to more than 1,000 courses for 18,000 trainees. The facility will offer training to both Etihad and third-party customers.
Airbus signed an agreement Nov. 14 with Mubadala Investment Co. to provide internship opportunities for engineering students in the United Arab Emirates. The students will complete their internships at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France.
Joramco, which has signed MRO agreements this week with Gulf Air and Emirates, is adding new maintenance lines and workforce to handle increasing work, such as its recently announced partnership with Boeing on 737-800 passenger-to-freighter conversions.
“I expect to see a continuing and significant upward trend in the aftermarket. With order books at the OEMs full, the demand on MROs will continue,” says Joramco CEO Fraser Currie. “Airlines, operators and lessors will be signing longer term deals and locking in capacity as early as they can.” He adds that aftermarket companies will need to solve their resourcing issues “well in advance of the expected surges in capacity that will come from large markets like India.”
Commercial aircraft and engines may not be the only platforms driving MRO growth in the Middle East. Electrical vertical-take-off-and-landing (eVTOL) developer Archer Aviation is building an engineering center of excellence in Abu Dhabi, through which it will collaborate with local MRO providers such as Falcon Aviation and GAL-Ammroc to support the launch of advanced air mobility services in the United Arab Emirates.
According to Chief Commercial Officer Nikhil Goel, the company plans to operate up to 1,000 of its Midnight eVTOLs in the UAE. “There’s going to be more than enough demand for it, especially as the price starts to drop down,” he tells ShowNews. “[Advanced air mobility] is not going to be a small thing. It’s going to be thousands of aircraft, which means a ton of MRO. I think it’s going to be a massive driver for the MRO industry around the world.”
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