SIA upgrades maintenance facility
SIA upgrades maintenance facility
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Singapore
To reinstate its existence as a leading regional aircraft
maintenance company, SIA Engineering Company Ltd, a subsidiary of
Singapore Airlines, is set to upgrade its maintenance hangar to
accommodate wide body aircraft and to provide faster repair
service.
The company will add an additional two airplane hangars from
the current three with a total investment around US$10 million.
Senior technical director of the company, George Goh, told The
Jakarta Post that the hangars were aimed at accommodating the
latest big-body Boeing 777-200/300 commercial airplanes and to
increase the capacity of the facilities from six airplanes at
present to 10.
"In 2004, the two hangars will be in operation. The completion
of the facilities will put us as the first company in Asia with
the ability to fix three B777-200/300 at the same time," said
Goh.
The B777-200/300 is the latest series of commercial airplanes
made by the United States' aviation giant Boeing Company.
Singapore Airlines currently has 37 of these type in operation.
SIA Engineering was established in 1992 to maintain the
airplanes used by Singapore Airlines. In its development, the
company plans to take maintenance orders from other countries.
The company, which employs 4,000 workers, currently has some
52 customers outside the SIA fleet, such as Air China, Federal
Express and Northwest.
According to Goh, each airplane maintenance contract could
reach up to US$3 million per year.
Under the contract, an airplane must be put under light
maintenance after 18,000 hours of flight, undergo frame and
engine overhaul after 20,000 hours of flight.
"For light maintenance, we usually probe the plane for any
corrosion which always becomes the main problem for airplanes,"
said Goh.
The company, which occupies a 34,000 square-meter site,
managed to book a total profit of around US$200 million in 2001.
Airframe and component overhaul services accounted for 60 percent
of the company's revenue, while line maintenance and technical
ground handling contributed 40 percent to the revenue. Currently,
the company has the ability to handle line maintenance for 200
airplanes per day.
The company is targeting a growth of 30 percent for 2003.
Goh claimed that the company was the most advanced and
comprehensive maintenance company in Asia as it was the only
company in the region that has the ability to fix the B777
airplane.
"Our main competitor in Asia is currently the Hong Kong
Aircraft Engineering Company Ltd (HAECO) which has the ability of
housing large body aircraft of three B747s side by side," said
Goh.
When asked whether Indonesian airline companies had ever made
maintenance contracts with the company, Goh said only the now-
defunct Sempati Airlines.
"Well currently we haven't received airplanes from Indonesian
airline companies. I heard that Garuda Indonesia Airways (GIA)
has a maintenance company that provides some kind of service for
Indonesian airlines," said Goh.
Spokesman of Indonesia's Garuda Indonesian Airways (GIA),
Pujobroto, noted that GIA has its own maintenance facility ran by
its subsidiary PT Garuda Maintenance Facility (GMF) which also
accepts maintenance orders from other airline companies.
"We will not send our planes to Singapore, since we already
have the ability to fix them here," he said.