ABU DHABI—Pratt & Whitney will expand its geared turbofan engine aftermarket shops by adding United Arab Emirates-based engine overhaul specialist Sanad to the global network.
The 30-year agreement will see Sanad operating a new MRO facility for Pratt’s geared turbofan (GTF) range of engines in Abu Dhabi.
Under the agreement signed by Raytheon, Pratt, Sanad, the latter’s parent company Mubadala and the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Tawazun Council, which is the interface between Raytheon and the UAE government, the new facility at Al Ain Aerospace Park in Abu Dhabi will be able to handle up to 350 engine shop visits a year once it opens in the third quarter of 2028.
The new facility will help to fulfill Raytheon’s offset obligations to the UAE and is unusual in being a civil project offsetting military purchases made by the UAE.
The agreement was signed last week but officially announced at IDEX yesterday (Feb. 17).
“Pratt & Whitney have been talking to Sanad about developing our relationship with them,” said Marc Meredith, vice president of GTF commercial aftermarket at Pratt & Whitney.
The deal took more than two years to bring to fruition and benefited from Pratt’s decade-long relationship with Sanad, which has an MRO operation for IAE V2500 engines at an existing site beside Abu Dhabi International Airport.
“This is a really exciting, generational project, both for us and for them,” Meredith said. It had been helped by the strong connection with Sanad’s Managing Directiro and Group CEO, Mansoor Janahi.
It became apparent during negotiations that the scale of GTF work would require a new site, rather than expanding Sanad’s existing facility. The Al Ain plant is likely to generate several hundred jobs.
Given the scale of future GTF production, Meredith adds: “There is a massive opportunity in front of us."
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