PC: IdeaBuddy
GE Aerospace has announced a $10 million investment to improve its maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facilities in Dubai, UAE, and Doha, Qatar. These funds will benefit tooling, equipment, facilities, and the work force at the GE Aerospace On Wing Support (OWS) bases during 2024 and 2025. GE made the announcement during MRO Middle East, reiterating the company’s commitment to improve aviation infrastructure across the region.
Through this investment, GE Aerospace plans to increase the workforce at its Middle East facilities by 30% while actively pursuing other investment opportunities in the region. This initiative is also expected to benefit local airlines with enhanced capacity and operational efficiency by minimizing downtime. GE Aerospace is making this investment just as the Middle East aviation sector has continued to show growth with rising air traffic and demand for reliable maintenance solutions.
Aziz Koleilat President and CEO for GE Aerospace in the Middle East, Türkiye, and CIS elaborated on the need for the expansion of MRO capabilities in support of regional airlines. He stated that by extending such services, we are going to support to maintenance of more engines at optimized performance so as to provide the customers with the needed support in a timely manner for the industry. The capital injection is set to expand the OWS facilities’ capabilities to service CFM LEAP engines by allowing hot section repairs, module-level disassemblies, and durability upgrades. Consequently, these improvements will help airlines reduce aircraft downtime and enhance operational flexibility.
This investment‘s key aspect is the development of its workforce. The 30% increase in personnel will be supported by extensive training initiatives that will include a fully equipped training engine aimed at speeding up the certification processes for employees. That will ease new hires into their positions and improve their contributions to operations. Following his lead, Alex Henderson, GE Aerospace Global On Wing Support Leader, stated the significance of this investment, as ongoing supply chain challenges make enhancement of MRO competencies vital. He remarked that the investment will enable GE Aerospace to respond to the increasing demands and provide increased value to airlines in the region.
The $10 million is part of GE Aerospace’s $1 billion global MRO spending program to be commenced in 2024. The company seeks to boost its maintenance capabilities to meet increased service requirements for GE Aerospace and CFM engines. As a feature of this program, GE Aerospace will deploy its exclusive Flight Deck operating model at its MRO sites. Flight Deck combines Safety and Quality Management Systems to enable maximizing efficiency, increasing safety, and improving service delivery.
Currently-more than 20 airlines in the Middle East, Türkiye, and the CIS operate over 750 LEAP-1A and LEAP-1B engines. The investment will also include the preparation of GE Aerospace’s facilities for the GE9X engine, the most powerful commercial jet engine in the world, designed to power Boeing’s 777X aircraft. The Middle East represents one of the largest numbers of GE9X engine orders in the world, further underlining its significance as a key market for GE Aerospace.
With its expanded MRO capabilities, GE Aerospace will strengthen support for various airlines in the region, whose maintenance turnaround time and efficiency continue building. This investment accentuates the emergence of Dubai and Doha as two key aviation hubs, solidifying their position in the future of global air travel.
