Etihad Airways acquires aircraft maintenance provider from Mubadala

Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies has more than 2,000 employees, 200 of whom will be transferred to a new company called TS&S Aerospace. Philip Cheung / The National

Etihad Airways has acquired the aircraft maintenance services provider Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (Adat) from Mubadala, in a deal that will result in a new engine company being carved out from the organisation.

Etihad has bought Adat's airframe and component businesses, while Mubadala will spin off Adat's maintenance, repair and overhaul business into a new company called Turbine Services & Solutions Aerospace.

Adat has more than 2,000 employees, 200 of whom will be transferred to TS&S Aerospace. Etihad will acquire Adat’s maintenance and engineering teams, hangars, component workshops, and paint facilities.

Etihad and Mubadala declined to provide financial details of the transaction.

At the Dubai Airshow in December, Mubadala signed US$6 billion in contracts with aviation firms for maintenance and manufacturing services.

New maintenance facilities will be built in Al Ain to cater to Rolls- Royce’s Trent XWB engines and GE Aviation’s GEnx engines, as part of a $1bn deal with the two companies.

It is likely that this work will be delivered by TS&S Aerospace.

Boeing and Airbus also signed deals with Mubadala worth $5bn, which will involve Strata providing advanced composites and machined metals to both companies.

Last month, Mubadala, Tawazun Holding and Emirates Advanced Investments (EAI) signed an initial agreement declaring an intent to merge parts of the three companies’ defence businesses.

It is not clear what the impact of this will be on Mubadala’s aerospace and defence unit, since it is likely that further companies will be hived off from this part of the organisation as part of any merger deal with Tawazun and EAI.

Mubadala did not provide further details.

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