Middle Eastern maintenance, repair and overhaul start-up Gulf Technics has spelled out its expansion plans at the Bahrain International Airshow.
As well as a three-bay hangar at Bahrain International Airport for airframe checks - due to open in the first quarter of 2014 - the government-owned company wants to develop a competence in component repair and establish a technical research centre that will work with sectors other than aviation.
Gulf Technics was officially launched at the last Bahrain air show, but only began operations in April 2011 with a power-by-the-hour contract to service around 1,000 rotable components for Gulf Air's Airbus fleet, using premises leased from Gulf Air.
The business is still negotiating a joint venture agreement to run the new hangar with SIA Engineering (SIAEC) after signing a memorandum of understanding at the 2010 Bahrain show. SIAEC currently handles Gulf Air's line maintenance from an old hangar at the airport.
Gulf Technics believes it can extend its customer base beyond Gulf Air.
"We are ambitious to make Bahrain a centre for MRO in the region," said Mazin Saleh, business development manager, technical.
However, he added that Gulf Technics, which currently employs 22 people, will not simply slash rates to win work from local competitors. "We want to create high-value jobs for Bahrainis and provide a good service. We will be competitive but we are not just going to spend money because we can," he said.
Saleh said that by 2014, Gulf Technics hoped to have a workforce in the "low hundreds".
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
