Page 17 - AAA JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2012 Online Magazine

Singapore

Hub of Activity serviced by Singapore’s MRO provid-
This will mean more aircraft to be
ers, more components to be supplied,
and, of course, economies of scale.
But Singapore is not just relying on
The Singapore Air Show will be a chance for the City State its MRO industry. At the previous air
to show the world how it is developing into a hub for the show in 2010, engine manufacturer
civil aviation industry, not least through the development of Rolls-Royce broke ground at its new fa-
the Seletar Aerospace Park cility with the 320ha Seletar Aerospace
Park in the far north of Singapore. This
air show will see the official opening.
he Singapore Air Show is the moval of a “non-swapping condition”, The Rolls-Royce facility will manu-
TCity State’s biennial opportu- which helps to reduce the administra- facture wide chord fan blades - the first
nity to show off its position as an tive difficulties of having to track spe- time these have been manufactured
aviation centre of excellence. Chan- cific aircraft rotables. outside of the manufacturer’s Derby,
gi Airport has been in the top three And, of course, Singapore is situated UK base. When full engine produc-
annual SkyTrax ranking since 2000, at the centre of the most dynamic com- tion commences at Rolls Royce in Sele-
Singapore International Airlines has mercial aviaiton region in the world. tar Aerospace Park at the end of 2012,
been ranked either one or two in the Aircraft manufacturer Boeing esti- the company will be assembling and
world by the same organisation for mates that approximately half of the testing their Trent 1000 engine, which
the last five years.
And, on top of that, ST Aerospace is
the world’s largest MRO provider, while
SIAEC, the engineering arm of Sin-
gapore Airlines, is also in the top ten.
Numerous foreign aerospace compa-
nies also have regional bases in Singa-
pore - the City State has over 100 aero-
space companies in total and counts for
around 20-25% of the Asia-Pacific MRO
market. As of 2010, the aerospace indus-
try employed over 18,000 people and
achieved an average annual growth
rate of 13 percent since 1990.
This will be supported by an aca-
demic system that is producing around
1,500 aerospace graduates per year,
which is in turn helping the industry ANA Boeing 767-300 undergoing
produce an average revenue per em- conversion by ST Aerospace.
ployee in 2009 of about S$439,000, ac-
cording to the Singapore Aerospace world’s air traffic growth will involve powers the Airbus A380, at the new
Manpower Study commissioned by travel to, from, or within the Asia-Pa- facility. The company is also looking
the Association of Aerospace Indus- cific region over the next 20 years, and at adding its Trent XWB which powers
tries (Singapore). The study revealed that total air traffic for the region will the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to the facili-
that this is expected to grow by about grow 6.7 percent per year during the ties inventory.
13 percent, to S$496,000 by 2015. period. Accordingly, the Asia-Pacific With Pratt & Whitney also adding
Singapore also has an aerospace region will require some 11,450 new an engine MRO facility at Seletar, the
industry-friendly taxation system, aircraft between 2011 and 2030, ac- park is set to grow. The Seletar Aero-
including an Investment Allowance counting for around a third of new de- space Park will host an integrated clus-
Scheme for aircraft rotables that pro- liveries worldwide. ter of these activities:
vides an allowance of 50 percent of the This will propel the Asia-Pacific re- • Aerospace Maintenance, Repair &
qualifying costs of these rotables. This gion into taking its place as one of the Overhaul (MRO)
scheme has recently been made made world’s three major aviation markets, • Design and manufacture of aircraft
more aerospace-friendly with the re- alongside Europe and North America. systems, components, and potentially

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www.AsianAirlines-Airports.com January/February 2012 ASIAN AIRLINES & AIRPORTS