Page 19 - AAA JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2019 Online Magazine

investments projects include GKN Aerospace’s new repair facility
and the expansion of Senior Aerospace. “The positive development
has also spurred the government to view the aerospace industry as
a critical sector which offers abundant opportunities for the transfer
of advanced technologies in engineering, electronics, composite
materials, system integration, MRO (maintenance, repair and over-
haul) and industry-led Research & Technology,” he said.

Malaysia recently launched a new RM140 million SAM Engineering
& Equipment (M) Bhd (SAMEE) plant, which will produce aero-
space components for Airbus commercial aircraft.Indonesia has
also entered the field to challenge the dominance of established
Singaporean players.

In Growth Mode
GMF AeroAsia, the maintenance subsidiary of Garuda Indonesia,
sector is the best reflection of this. In addition, opened the world’s largest maintenance hangar for narrow-body
ST Aerospace signed a component mainte- aircraft in 2015 at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, the gate-
nance-by-the-hour contract with Vietnam way to Indonesia, located outside of Jakarta. The hangar has space
Airlines. The 14-year long contract will cater for 16 airplanes. Besides aircraft of Garuda and its low-cost affil-
to the airline’s entire fleet of 58 A321CEOs and iate Citilink, planes of various foreign Low Cost Carriers (LCCs),
20 A321NEO aircraft, including the A321 planes including AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Russia’s Nordwind Airlines, get
that are yet to be delivered. Scheduled to be their aircraft for servicing.
operational by the end of this year, the deal will
enable ST Aerospace to establish an inventory
base in Vietnam to provide efficient services to
Vietnam Airlines.

Malaysia Bets on MRO
Malaysia also has identified the aerospace
sector as one of the new growth industries
due to the impressive evolution and enor-
mous future growth of the industry. Minister
of International Trade and Industry Datuk Darell
Leiking said the government’s “aim is to shift
Malaysia’s economy from labour intensive to
high value added, knowledge and innovation
based economic activities with a focus on the
services and manufacturing sectors.”

He said that in 2017, the Malaysian aerospace
industry recorded a total revenue of RM13.5 bil-
lion, with aerospace manufacturing contributing
to 48 per cent of the total revenue. “Under the
11th Malaysia Plan, the government has iden-
tified the aerospace sector as one of the new
growth industries for Malaysia,” he said. He
said that in recent years, the sector has seen a
surge in investments, with some multinationals
establishing and expanding operations across a
growing network of aerospace facilities, which
has accelerated the growth of the local supply GMF plans to spend US$400 million in the next five years to expand
chain. its maintenance facilities with a strong focus on narrow-body air-
craft, the popular aircraft type among LCCs. According to reports,
“The leading global aerospace players in the company, which currently operates four maintenance hangars
Malaysia include Airbus, Spirit AeroSystems, at Soekarno-Hatta airport, will open new facilities on the Indonesian
Safran Landing Systems, Honeywell Aerospace island of Batam, close to Singapore, in 2019.The island’s wage
Avionics, Singapore Aerospace Manufacturing, levels are even lower than in Jakarta and its location is closer to
GE and UTC Aerospace Systems. Recent key key markets, including Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and South Korea.

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