Al Jaber Aviation (AJA) is the latest Gulf operator to plan a move into MRO as it strives to broaden its offering beyond the highly competitive business-jet charter market.
The company, based at Abu Dhabi's Al Bateen, is in negotiations to form a joint venture with a "well-known European MRO provider" to open a hangar at the dedicated downtown business aviation airport, says chief operating officer Mark Pierotti.
The 300m2 (3,230ft2) facility – which will provide light maintenance services to airline and business aviation operators of Airbus and Boeing narrowbodies, as well as Embraer and Hawker jets – is earmarked to open in early 2018.
AJA will then pursue a "10-year plan to take us up to major checks, as well as overhauls, although not full-scale completions", says Pierotti.
He says Etihad Airways' purchase from Mubadala of the former Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies to serve as the airline's engineering department has created a "gap in the market" for local services. He adds: "At the moment, a lot of narrowbodies go out of the country for maintenance."
AJA was founded in 2007, the third in a trio of locally owned, high-end business aviation charter providers based in Abu Dhabi, along with Royal Jet and Falcon Aviation. It has ramped back on original plans to acquire an extensive fleet of Airbus and Embraer corporate jets and instead offers an Airbus A318 Elite and Embraer Lineage 1000, as well as a Hawker 800XP, which it operates under its Sky Limo sub-brand.
It is also moving into aircraft management and operates an aviation consultancy and training joint venture called Avisa Gulf.
"VIP charter is no longer enough for us," admits Pierotti. "The charter market is extremely competitive. We need multiple revenue streams."
Falcon Aviation is due to open the Middle East's first VIP jet completion centre by year-end. The 13,700m2 development, which Falcon announced in 2014 and will be capable of housing an Airbus A380, is under construction at Dubai World Central airport. Falcon already operates an MRO facility for helicopters and smaller business jets at its Al Bateen base.
Source: Flight International
