Etihad investment continues with engineering hub
MIDDLE East airline Etihad has further cemented its investment in Manchester by opening an engineering base at the airport.
The Abu Dhabi-based carrier, which in recent months has announced an expansion of its flights to double daily, committed to open a call centre in the city, and most recently extended and expanded its sponsorship of Manchester City FC via a £350m partnership including the naming rights to the City of Manchester Stadium, has created seven jobs with the latest move.
The new line maintenance facility at Terminal 1 is Etihad’s sixth outside Abu Dhabi. Staff numbers are expected to grow as the airline wins third party maintenance work from other carriers, including code-share partners, needing its services at Manchester.
Jeff Wilkinson, vice president for maintenance, said: “This is just the beginning – I expect to see us growing our engineering presence in Manchester.”
Wilkinson, who was born in Stockport and who trained at BAE at Woodford, but is now based in Abu Dhabi, added: “Our investment in the line maintenance facility comes on the day we’ve started our double-daily services to Abu Dhabi.
“Our investment in Manchester illustrates the remarkable growth of our airline, our ambition to bring key services in-house in markets we operate to, and also to recruit locally.”
Mr Wilkinson said he expected that if demand dictates, Etihad would introduce the A380 super-jumbo to its Manchester service. Rival Emirates has already begun to use the A380 on one of its daily Manchester-Dubai flights.
“I can’t say when this will be, but our flights are full out of Manchester, which is a good sign.”
Andrew Harrison, managing director of Manchester Airport welcomed the investment, adding: “These initiatives reflect Etihad’s consistent commitment to the north of England, which will enable individual travellers and local businesses to use Manchester as a convenient hub to travel throughout the world.
“Etihad is a hugely important player in our long-haul network and we welcome its new staff to Manchester Airport.”
