Abu Dhabi sets sights on sky with aerospace ambitions

The UAE plans to manufacture its own business jets before the end of the decade and become a main supplier to Boeing and Airbus, as the oil-rich region transforms itself into a global aviation hub.

Mubadala Aerospace, the Abu Dhabi state-owned maker of aircraft parts is looking to team up with companies such as Dassault Aviation, Gulfstream Aerospace and Cessna for their manufacturing and marketing capabilities, executive director Hommaid al-Shemmari said in an interview in Dubai. The business jet would seat eight to 14 passengers, he said.

Abu Dhabi, home to about 7 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves, is branching out into aerospace as the country’s biggest carriers, Emirates and Etihad, beef up their fleets to funnel travellers through the Middle East.

Emirates has transformed itself into the world’s largest airline by international traffic, and the company announce the largest deal at the Dubai Air show last week.

“You have to have a global ambition and that’s what we have for Abu Dhabi,” Shemmari said in the interview. “By 2030, we want to be one of top five aerostructure manufacturers in the world,” and among the biggest maintenance and repair centers besides Deutsche Lufthansa and Air France-KLM, he said.

The Middle East has expanded on its status as an omni-directional hub for long-haul travellers. Emirates is already the largest buyer of Airbus A380 superjumbos and Boeing 777 wide-body aircraft, of which the carrier agreed to buy an additional 50 units for $18bn at the air show.

Discussions are ongoing to build the business jet, Shemmari said. Mubadala already runs partnerships with Finmeccanica and General Electric, and it plans to build a $200m maintenance facility to service engines of Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 planes.

Any jet developed by Mubadala would face competition from the likes of Gulfstream, a unit of General Dynamics. Textron’s Cessna, Dassault Aviation’s Falcon, Embraer, and Bombardier, maker of the Global Express and Learjet aircraft.

Business aircraft run in size from the four-passenger Learjet 45XR to Gulfstream G650, a long-range luxury aircraft with 7,000-nautical mile range that debuts in 2012, to the Boeing and Airbus single-aisle 737 and A320 models that can be outfitted for 50 business passengers or more.

Mubadala also wants a partner for Strata, which makes composite parts for Airbus 330 and 340 planes at its factory in Al Ain and aims to start making Boeing plane parts.

Strata’s order book stands at $2.7bn, Shemmari said.

Strata’s composite manufacturing plant is an example of Mubadala’s strategy, said Shemmari. Abu Dhabi has the cash to invest, the cheap energy needed to power manufacturing projects, is tax-free and is pegged to the dollar, he said.

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