Page 18 - AAA MAY-JUNE 2012 Online Magazine

FEATURE MRO IN ASIA

MRO Asia:

on the up

With air transport operations ballooning throughout
Asia, it is little wonder that OEMs and third-party
providers are expanding MRO facilities across the
region. In fact Asia’s MRO market is projected to reach
parity with that of the Americas and Europe by 2021.
But which are the real growth zones?

Neelam Matthews reports

Things are moving in asia. rolls-royce opened its first ever purpose-built field
services hub at Kuala Lumpur international airport to support the company’s growing
civil aerospace customer base in south east asia including malaysia airlines and airasia
X. it’s just part of a global mro trend to be close to growing asian customers. “The
facility (at KLia) will be the focal point of all our civil large-engine support in malaysia,”
mark mcguinness, Chief service representative, Civil aerospace, rolls-royce, said.
“and it will play an increasing important role in the surrounding region.”
rolls-royce is not the only one bullish about asia. Fabrice Defrance, svP
Commercial, aFi KLm e&m, is also behind an expansion into the asian region. “it is
interesting for us to be in asia not just to sell mro services. if we wish to serve the
customer, it means more local support,” he said. aFi KLm is developing a component
shop in india and China, and in singapore, it has a specific component inventory
dedicated to asian customers. “in asia, after vietnam airlines and Philippine airlines,
we now have an agreement with Pia for the overhaul of the ge 90 engine. it is a recent
deal, something that is just the start,” added Defrance.
analysts agree. “While north america and West europe have the largest fleets and
mro markets, the growth is coming from india, China, and east europe,” says a report
by consultancy Team sai. With some of the fastest-growing regions, asian operators
need to prepare for that growth with some urgency.

Working on an
engine with the
cowling open at
Ameco Beijing’s
massive hangar
18 ASIAN AIRLINES & AIRPORTS MAY / JUNE 2012 WWW.ASIANAIRLINES-AIRPORTS.COM