Gama Aviation has celebrated a milestone in its development of a new FBO/MRO complex at Sharjah International Airport in the UAE. While the company has been providing aviation services there for more than a decade from a previously existing structure, its space was constrained. Its plans to construct a purpose-built facility had stalled, however, due to a variety of economic factors during the global pandemic and its aftermath.
The company just completed a new 36,000-sq-m (387,500-sq-ft) parking apron at its 80,000-sq-m (20-acre) leasehold on the eastern side of the airfield. In the third quarter, it expects to break ground on a climate-controlled 14,000-sq-m (151,000-sq-ft) hangar—one of the largest in the region, capable of sheltering bizliners—along with a new VIP terminal. The hangar will house the company’s MRO, as well as provide storage for based and transient aircraft.
“It will give us the opportunity to scale up and review what MRO services we provide and improve that,” said Tom Murphy, managing director of Gama’s Sharjah location as well as its two UK facilities in Glasgow and the Isle of Jersey. “At the moment, we provide line maintenance to [Bombardier’s] Global series, Challengers, and Gulfstream’s G650, and we’ll be looking to expand on that outside of those airframes.”
Following the construction of the ramp, Gama will add a taxiway linking it to the runway, and move its airside services to a temporary facility there starting in September, while shuttling guests to its existing location until its replacement is completed in the second quarter of 2025. The old FBO facility will return to airport control.
“We believe what we will offer in Sharjah will be unique to the other facilities in the region,” said Murphy, adding that the emirate was the site of the UAE's first airport. “Over 40 years of operational experience has been synthesized into developing a business aviation center that offers a highly personal, tailored experience to discerning owners, their traveling associates, and flight crews.”