New AED 1 Billion Hangars To House Emirates’ Fleet For The Future

A huge new hangar complex is to be built at Dubai International Airport -- to give Emirates engineers a facility where they can work on the airline’s future fleet in safety and comfort.

The eight hangars in the AED $1 billion (US $275m) Emirates Engineering Centre, the biggest building project ever undertaken by the airline, will house every aircraft type in its fleet, including its new 575-seat Airbus A380s which will be the largest in the skies when they enter service from 2005.

As well as hangars, the complex includes an aircraft washing bay, administration block, mosque, waste treatment plant, access roads, and parking for 2000 cars. It will be developed on a site next to the exhibition centre and will be ready to use by the end of 2005.

Emirates’ Chairman, His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum, recently signed the project management contract with Alain le Pajolec (left), managing director of French company ADPI Aéroports de Paris International.

Sheikh Ahmed said today: “We place the highest possible importance on keeping our aircraft safe, modern -- and meticulously maintained. 

“With an average age of only three years, our fleet is already one of the industry’s youngest. At the Dubai Air Show in November 2001, in a move to make it more modern still, we ordered new aircraft worth US $15 billion, and will have more than 100 in operation by 2010. 

“To house and care for this world-class fleet, only a world-class maintenance facility is good enough,” Sheikh Ahmed said.

Ali Mubarak Al Soori, Head of Chairman’s Office & Facilities Management, said: “ADPI will prepare the overall design and act as lead consultants for the new Engineering Centre.

“The sub-contractors include the Fraser Nag partnership, which is now building our new AED 100m (US $28m) Emirates Aviation College at Al Garhoud, which will include 14 bays to accommodate different aircraft simulators. This should be ready by next April.

“Surveying, soil testing and clean-up work on the as-yet undeveloped hangar site starts next February. The construction work contract will be signed in June, and we expect phase 1, including some of the hangars and the admin block, to be completed by September 2004,” Mr Ali Soori said.

Once the new centre is ready for use, the present hangars at Emirates’ Engineering HQ will be returned to the Department of Civil Aviation for demolition, making way for the expansion of the airport’s Sheikh Rashid terminal from next year.

This will give Emirates its own dedicated passenger concourse, with 28 departure gates handling 20 million people a year. It will feature PCs and Internet access points, and enlarged catering facilities, Food Court and dining areas.

In a series of further moves to offer the best customer service both on the ground and in the air, Emirates recently opened the world’s first check-in terminal exclusively for First and Business class travellers. 

With demand for Business Class travel soaring, Emirates’ Business Class lounge, which has been redeveloped to make it 60 per cent bigger and hold 500 people, reopens soon. It will also be open to Skywards gold and silver members, and SriLankan Business Class travellers.

Emirates is now making wide-ranging improvements to its baggage handling facilities, and will open new check-in counters exclusively for its Economy passengers.