Sanad Aerotech, a unit of Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, has won a $6.5 billion (Dh 23.8 billion) contract from Rolls Royce to service Trent 700 engines used for the Airbus SE A330 jetliner.
According to the contract, Sanad Aerotech will maintain 75 Trent 700 engines a year across nine years. The deal represents 25 percent of all the A330 turbines that are globally overhauled each year for Rolls Royce. The contract was announced at the Paris air show.
With the deal, Sanad can stake a claim to a larger share of the third-party aircraft engine maintenance market, Badar Al Olama, executive director of Mubadala Aerospace and Defence was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
Sanad Aerotech plans to boost its workforce by more than 40 percent to almost 500 engineers and technicians. Currently, the Abu Dhabi company services 100 engines annually. The company also maintains GE’s GEnX which powers Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner in addition to International Aero Engines’ V2500 used for Airbus A320s.
Sanad Aerotech’s current customers include airlines from Chile, Portugal, and South Korea. The Mubadala company has now become a Rolls Royce Trent annual maintenance centre. The deal buttresses Sanad’s status as leading global Trent 700 MRO services provider.
The deal is expected to boost the UAE economy with the number of airlines coming to Abu Dhabi for MRO service increasing dramatically. Sanad will carry out the maintenance using its 330 strong workforce at its state of the art MRO facility at Abu Dhabi International Airport.