Stork taps Fokker service market in Asia

Stork taps Fokker service market in Asia

SINGAPORE (AFP): A subsidiary of Dutch industrial group Stork N.V. launched an aircraft service center here yesterday to cater to the large fleet of Fokker planes in Asia after the demise of Fokker's manufacturing operations.

Fokker Services Asia Pte. Ltd. also hopes to eventually maintain and repair other aircraft makes, including military planes, company officials said.

"Modern aircraft like Fokker aircraft can have an economical life which is virtually limitless," said Fokker Service Asia managing director Eelco Wagner, who predicted "a long future" for the Fokker maintenance business.

Fokker Services is a subsidiary of Stork, a listed group with 20,000 employees and US$3 billion in turnover.

Stork took over the service-related operations of Fokker after it went bankrupt last year, and was part of a failed final bid to rescue what was once the world's largest aircraft manufacturer.

Some 270 Fokker planes are in service in Asia, with Indonesia as the largest market, out of 1,200 worldwide. Fokker fleets are also operated by China, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Wagner told AFP that "Fokker aircraft have an economical life, guaranteed, of 90,000 cycles, a cycle meaning one takeoff and one landing."

"If you really operate an aircraft hard, you'll make about 3,000 cycles a year, and that's really pushing it ... that's 30 years (of service)," he said.

Stork also took over the spare parts manufacturing operations of Fokker, which services other manufacturers such as Airbus Industrie, the European consortium now battling U.S. giant Boeing Co.

Fokker Services president Govert Hamers said at the launch of the Asian center that Fokker "could not survive the financial and political brute forces developed by very large competitors" like Boeing and Airbus.

"Restart attempts have all failed and just recently the last new Fokker 70 was delivered and just today, the last Fokker 50 is being flight tested," he said, calling it "a dramatic end to an extraordinary story."

But he added that "we should shed no tears, because the Fokker name will live on."

Hamers said existing Fokker aircraft will continue to make money for its operators, which will require outside maintenance, technical support and logistics in a highly competitive market.

"Of course we cannot provide all support from far-away Holland. We need to be here," he said.

Fokker Services is also operating out of Atlanta, Georgia to service North American customers, and maintains an office in Jakarta.

"It is Stork's clear intention that every support will be given to my organization to ensure that we can do our job professionally and reliably and in the most cost-effective manner," Hamers said.

Fokker Services Asia hopes to achieve an annual turnover of $50 million by its third year, company officials said.