Emirates, the world's biggest long-haul airline, has announced a new 1 million sq.ft. $950 million engineering facility for Dubai World Central (DWC), Dubai’s second aviation hub, which is in the south of the city.

The announcement was made on X, formerly known as Twitter, by the airline’s chairman and chief executive, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum on the second day of Dubai Airshow.

“I am pleased to announce Emirates’ massive investment of $950 million to build a cutting-edge engineering facility at Dubai World Central (DWC). Spread over 1 million square metres, this new engineering facility will be the largest and most advanced in commercial aviation operated by an airline, and it will significantly enhance Dubai's globally renowned aviation infrastructure,” Sheikh Ahmed tweeted.

Emirates and flydubai placed orders with Boeing on the first day of Dubai Airshow, fuelling the airlines' growth and expansion plans in the aviation sector.

While Emirates placed an order for 90 more Boeing 777X jets valued at $52 billion, sister airline flydubai announced an order for 30 787 Dreamliners, its first wide-body planes.

Like most airlines, Emirates experienced losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, but announced a record H1 profit of $2.7 billion for H1 last week.

The carrier is based at Dubai International Airport (DXB) but is expected to move its operations to DWC in the coming years. 

(Reporting by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Seban Scaria)

imogen.lillywhite@lseg.com