34 billion yuan! China Railway Construction Corporation builds the world's largest aircraft maintenance center in Dubai

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Recently, the new engineering facility project at Emirates' Dubai World Central, undertaken by China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC), completed the pouring of all 20 test piles. This marks the official entry into the physical construction phase of the world's largest aviation maintenance center since its groundbreaking in May this year.

The project is implemented by China Railway 18th Bureau Group, with a contract value of approximately 17.5 billion UAE dirhams (equivalent to about 34 billion yuan), a total construction area of 1.21 million square meters, and a construction period of 50 months.

The park plans to build 8 large maintenance hangars, 2 paint hangars, as well as warehousing, maintenance workshops and other facilities. Upon completion, it will be able to accommodate maintenance operations for 28 wide-body aircraft simultaneously, serving as the core MRO base reserved by Emirates for its future fleet expansion.

The biggest technical challenge of the project lies in the 285-meter column-free span design of the 8 maintenance hangars. Each hangar's door steel truss beam spans 285 meters, with an installation height of approximately 45 meters and a single beam weight of about 2,000 tons, requiring integral hoisting.

The 8 maintenance hangars and 2 paint hangars are constructed simultaneously, integrating 16 major professional systems internally, including aircraft docks, power supply, fuel, fire protection, and security.

Unlike traditional terminals, this "aircraft hospital" is more like a giant industrial factory—the hangars cannot have any columns, must accommodate the entry and parking of large wide-body aircraft such as the A380 and Boeing 777, and simultaneously support heavy operations including engine replacement, landing gear maintenance, and even full aircraft painting.

The 285-meter free span is extremely rare among global civil aviation maintenance facilities, posing a tremendous test to steel structure precision and construction organization capabilities.

Behind this maintenance center lies the in-depth layout of Dubai's aviation industry chain. The project is located at Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South and will gradually take on more of Emirates' business in the future. Currently, Emirates operates over 270 wide-body passenger aircraft, and the maintenance demand from aging fleet refurbishment and new aircraft deliveries continues to rise.

After the new center is put into operation, Emirates will increase its maintenance self-sufficiency rate and open up surplus capacity to other airlines, driving Dubai's transformation from an aviation transport hub to an aviation engineering service center.

China Railway 18th Bureau Group has previously undertaken the maintenance hangar project at Jeddah Airport in Saudi Arabia. Now, having entered Emirates' core maintenance system, Chinese infrastructure enterprises are extending their role in the Middle East from traditional civil construction to high-end industrial facilities such as aviation manufacturing and maintenance.

Once this "aircraft hospital" is fully completed, Dubai's aviation industry chain will fill a critical gap previously dependent on overseas suppliers, and China Railway Construction Corporation will secure another milestone in the Middle East's high-end engineering sector.