Etihad Engineering, the maintenance and repair arm of the national airline, will shift its activity. To safeguard the aviation group’s staff, the concern is going to start mass-producing of personal protective equipment.
Amid the coronacrisis, Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Aviation Group announced the new kind of activity. The concern will manufacture 1.3 million face masks in three months to safeguard staff in the air and on the ground against the threat of the novel virus. The masks were subsequently medically approved by two certifying bodies, Italy’s Laboratorio Analisi Tecnal and CNTAC, of China.
The safety and health of Etihad’s customers and employees is the company’s paramount concern and top priority. Amid the pandemic, they saw an opportunity to be self-sufficient.
The Etihad staff will be protected by its new in-house face masks until the end of 2020. The medical face masks will be distributed to Etihad Airways cabin crew as well as ground staff, catering, cargo, engineering employees and medical professionals.
The manufacturing facility boasts fully automated machines which can make produce up to 20,000 masks per day. According to Haytham Nasir, vice president of airframe services at Etihad Engineering, the masks have three layers and provide up to 98 per cent filtration. With the manufacturing of its own face masks, Etihad aimed at ensuring high levels of protection and safety.
“Since the start of the pandemic, we witnessed consistent demand for face masks at the workplace,” Nasir said.
To provide the highest level of protection, Etihad’s new facility not only meets the company’s internal demands but it could also mass produce for third-party customers, partners, and suppliers, the statement said.
