Etihad Engineering is to manufacture 1.3 million medical face masks at its newly established in-house production facility.

The MRO company will distribute the masks across the Etihad Aviation Group over the next three months, among cabin and ground crew, catering, cargo and engineering employees, and medical professionals.

The new facility (see video above for an inside look) operates fully automated machines that produce up to 20,000 masks daily. Etihad claims the triple-layered masks provide up to 98 per cent filtration.

The face masks have been medically certified by two certifying bodies: Laboratorio Analisi Tecnal (Italy) and CNTAC (China).

Etihad Engineering’s vice president airframe services Haytham Nasir said: “Since the start of the pandemic, we witnessed consistent demand for face masks at the workplace. With the safety, health and wellbeing of our customers and employees our paramount concern and top priority, we saw an opportunity to be self-sufficient.

“To provide the highest level of protection, this new facility not only meets our internal demands but we can also mass produce for third-party customers, partners, and suppliers.”