MRO: Beyond the gulf

Abu Dhabi-based MRO provider Gamco plans to expand throughout and outside the UAE - and it is also moving more into the military market

Gulf Aircraft Maintenance Company (Gamco) is moving forward with an aggressive expansion plan despite last month's fire that damaged three aircraft in one of its main hangars.

The Middle East's largest maintenance, repair and overhaul firm has begun building an additional hangar at its Abu Dhabi base and plans to open a satellite facility at Al Ain. Gamco is also setting up anew line maintenance base in Ras Al Khaimah and is seeking to open its first overseas facility.

The fast-growing maintenance provider currently only performs civilian aircraft heavy maintenance at its main facility at Abu Dhabi International Airport. Gamco has the capacity to overhaul 10-12 aircraft simultaneously, but general manager Saif Al Mughairy says construction began in March of a new hangar at Abu Dhabi International that can accommodate another three or four widebodies. The hangar is due to be completed at year-end.

Military business

Gamco also has a fast-growing military aircraft maintenance business that includes a mix of line and heavy maintenance capabilities at four airports in the UAE - Abu Dhabi International, Abu Dhabi's downtown airport, Al Ain and Dubai's Al Minhad airport. Last year it took over former UAE air force maintenance facilities at the three latter airports.

Al Mughairy says Gamco plans to expand its new military facility at Al Ain, which now maintains Pilatus PC-12s and BAe Systems Hawk trainers, to include a civil hangar that can accommodate one or two widebodies. Al Mughairy says the civil hangar should be operational in two to three years. "We're building up a workforce there. You can't start overnight," he says.

Al Ain is a city in eastern Abu Dhabi, the largest of the seven United Arab Emirates. Its airport is used for military training as well as limited commercial and general aviation flights. Al Mughairy says the new Al Ain facility will take pressure off the Abu Dhabi facility, which is now full despite the loss last year of Gamco's largest customer, Gulf Air.

Gulf Air, which had accounted for about one third of Gamco's roughly $350 million annual revenue stream, selected SR Technics last year as its new maintenance partner. But Gamco has offset the loss of revenues by securing new business from several third-party customers and increasing its military business. Gamco continues to do ad hoc work for Gulf Air, including work on Boeing 767s with corrosion to beams beneath the lavatories.

Gamco started as Gulf Air's maintenance division in partnership with the Abu Dhabi government, but over the years has steadily increased its third-party business. It is now the main maintenance provider for several other Middle Eastern carriers, including fast-growing Qatar Airways, which had an Airbus A300 destroyed at Gamco last month after a fire started during a C check. Gamco also has been successful over the last year in winning large contracts from two fast-growing Indian carriers, Airbus A320 operators Air Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines. A Kingfisher A320 and Air Mauritius A319 were slightly damaged from falling debris during the fire, but the hangar escaped damage.

Al Mughairy says Gamco is running out of space in Abu Dhabi and after the new hangar is built there will be no more room at its current site on the south side of the airport. Eventually, Gamco will expand into a new maintenance area planned for the north side of the current runway and south of the planned second runway. But this will not be ready until after a mid-field terminal opens in 2010.

Shared training

Gamco's present site is filled not only with hangars, but also training facilities, now shared with Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways administrative offices and several workshops dedicated to engine overhauls, composites maintenance and in-flight entertainment system repairs. "We're not your typical European shop that outsources everything small," Al Mughairy says. "People think we just bash metal."

Gamco also provides line maintenance at Abu Dhabi, mainly for fast-growing hometown carrier Etihad, which will also give Gamco significant heavy maintenance work once its young fleet starts to age. Gamco also offers line maintenance at Sharjah, another emirate adjacent to Dubai, and began basing mechanics earlier this year in the northern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah at the request of start-up carrier RAK Airways. RAK began test flights with a Boeing 757 in April and Gamco has been hired to look after its maintenance needs.

Al Mughairy says Gamco has no plans to open an overhaul facility at Ras Al Khaimah or Sharjah and is not interested in opening any more line maintenance stations. "I don't see line maintenance as significant. It's too much effort," he says.

But Gamco faces new competition in Sharjah following the creation earlier this year of a joint venture between low-cost carrier Air Arabia and Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering. Air Arabia chief executive Adel Ali says the joint venture will perform overhauls up to C checks on Air Arabia A320s and third-party aircraft. Air Arabia already has one hangar in Sharjah for line maintenance. Ali says a second hangar for heavy maintenance will open at the middle of this year.

Gamco will also face new competition from Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, which plans to open a maintenance hub at Dubai's new airport at Jebel Ali. Al Mughairy says Gamco has not considered opening a facility at Jebel Ali. "We have a lot on our hands. We'll fall over ourselves at this rate. You need to have a degree of controlled expansion," he says.

Over the last year Gamco has been focusing on increasing its military work, which now accounts for about 8% of its revenues. In addition to the three former air force facilities it has taken over, Gamco has two military hangars at Abu Dhabi International. These hangars are used to overhaul Lockheed Martin C-130 transports for foreign military customers, including the Iraqi air force, and to convert C-130s into civilian L-100 transports through the installation of a glass cockpit. Gamco also overhauls UAE air force C-130s on a separate line at Abu Dhabi's downtown airport.

Gamco has 2,500 employees at its Abu Dhabi facility and another 1,000 across the three military bases. Al Mughairy says Gamco has over the last year focused on hiring employees for the new military operation and this in part prompted it to delay the construction of the new civilian hangar at Abu Dhabi, which was originally due to be built two years ago. "We're now ready to refocus on the civil side," he says.

Overseas expansion

All of Gamco's facilities are located within the UAE, but for the last few years it has looked at expanding overseas. "We are in discussions with four other airports, two inside the region and two outside, to set up an operation," Al Mughairy reveals.

Gamco, along with several other major foreign maintenance companies, has looked for several years at opening a facility in India. Gamco has been talking to Kingfisher Airlines, which last year selected Gamco for Airbus A320 heavy checks, about opening an Indian facility. But the proposed three-way deal, which also involves Hindustan Aeronautics, has not yet been finalised.

Source: Flight International