Demand for personal protective equipment, or PPE, has soared due to the pandemic that has killed over 1.25 million globally DUBAI: Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways on Tuesday said it had opened an in-house face mask production facility in its engineering department that is to manufacture masks for staff and health professionals. Demand for personal protective equipment, or PPE, has soared due to the pandemic that has killed over 1.25 million globally. State-owned Etihad will make and distribute 1.3 million masks over the next three months to flight attendants, other staff and medical professionals, it said in a statement. The masks were three-layered and provide 98 percent filtration, it said. Etihad Engineering vice president Haytham Nasir said the production facility could manufacture masks for third-party customers in addition to meeting the airline’s own demands. Abu Dhabi state aerospace supplier Strata this year started manufacturing N95 masks following the outbreak of the pandemic.