Story ID: 514 OEMs
OEMs Serve Asia Pacific From Singapore
By: Ian Goold
Caption: 
Word Count: 1229
Anyone doubting the strategic value of Singapore’s near-Equatorial location as a Asia Pacific aerospace base need only visit the island state’s industrial and business estates, including the new Seletar Aerospace Park, to see how many original equipment manufacturers and aircraft and engine maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) companies have set up regional shops here.

Given its central Asia Pacific position, Singapore is ideally placed for MRO, engineering and sales support for customers in the region, according to Rockwell Collins (Booth Q79). The U.S. company, whose headquarters here is within six hours’ flight time of about 70 percent of its customer base in the region, provides MRO services for commercial and military customers. With about 120 employees in customer service, sales, marketing and other functions, the Rockwell Collins Singapore repair workshop services more than 1,000 products.

Asia Pacific is a key growth area for Fokker Services Asia, in particular for integrated support of regional aircraft. The Dutch company (Booth C23) has a large new free-span hangar that should permit its expertise to be extended from Fokker and ATR models to other regional aircraft, with a predicted doubling of work in the coming five years.

“This is a first major step in expanding our capabilities into Asia. The next phase will be to expand our logistics support capability from Singapore, focusing on component support as well as more-extensive local parts and ‘rotable’ stocking, including establishment of a component-maintenance facility in the near future,” said a Fokker spokesman. The company has performed more than 350 base-maintenance checks for more than 45 customers in Singapore since 1997.

Eurocopter South East Asia (ESEA) was established in Singapore in 1977 to sell and support the European manufacturer’s helicopter models in 14 territories, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. With a near 200-strong workforce, ESEA has delivered more than 300 new helicopters.

Textron subsidiaries Bell Helicopter (Booth Q01) and Cessna Aircraft are looking forward to completion of a new 275,000-sq-ft customer service and support facility at Seletar Aerospace Park. Scheduled for completion in the second quarter of this year, it is expected to employ approximately 90 technicians and office workers when fully operational.

The new Singapore facility is designed to replace and augment an existing supply center and strengthen Bell Helicopter’s sales presence in the Asia Pacific region, while also introducing parts distribution and maintenance capabilities for Cessna operators there. The property includes aircraft hangar, office, storage and maintenance areas.

”The Seletar site represents Bell Helicopter’s continued focus on expanding sales and marketing [in] the region,” according to Bell Helicopter Asia Pacific commercial-business managing director Sameer Rehman.

Serving as the two companies’ Asia Pacific regional headquarters, the expansion will include full-service centers for both manufacturers and will provide capacity for aircraft sales, technical support, spare-parts distribution, maintenance, overhaul, refurbishment, completions and customizing. It also will support Bell Helicopter maintenance and flight training.

Based at Singapore’s Loyang Industrial Estate next to Changi Airport, Pratt & Whitney Canada SEA (Booth L39) is part of the engine maker’s global support network. P&WC SEA, which has been established here for almost 30 years, provides overhaul and repair services for PW100 engines and APUs and hot-section inspections for PT6A, -B and -T, JT15D, PW150A and PW200 engines, and stores spare engines to support local customers. About five years ago, P&WC opened a new distribution center in Singapore, doubling the availability of parts and more than halving customer delivery times.

Rolls-Royce (Booth N23) has set up its first offshore factory for wide-chord fan blades here in Singapore, as well as engine assembly and training and advanced-technology facilities (see separate story on page xx [if in same issue]). The UK engine manufacturer, which expects to deliver its first locally assembled Trent 900 later this year, has been in Singapore since the 1950s and employs some 1,400 people.

Located at Changi Business Park, AAR International Engineering Services (Booth S01) provides a full range of engineering services and technicians. “With experienced designated engineering and airworthiness representatives on staff, we can handle projects from engineering new ‘solutions’ to installing modifications systems,” said the company.

Dallas Airmotive Asia Pacific, a division of global support company BBA Aviation (Booth D63), offers OEM-authorized repair and overhaul services to operators of the region’s business aircraft powered by General Electric, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney Canada and Rolls-Royce engines.

Goodrich Aerostructures Service Center Asia (GASCA) offers engine-nacelle MRO services. Using what is claimed to be the region’s largest autoclave capacity, GASCA (Booth CD07) can accommodate many composites nacelle “systems” and aerostructures from most airplanes in the region, including the Airbus A380 and new Boeing 787.

GASCA’s capabilities include on-site repair support, lease and exchange programs, long-term contract maintenance, as well as incorporation of service bulletins and modifications. The company assembled and trained a team that designed, analyzed and fabricated advanced-composites prototype nacelle components for the new Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engine program.

At Hamilton Sundstrand (Booth L39) a comprehensive accessory repair and exchange (CARE) team based in Singapore will assist in management of the parent company’s maintenance service plan program that is to provide asset management and component repair services for Japan’s All Nippon Airways.

Singapore is home to one of several Hawker Pacific (Booth H65) centers providing aircraft maintenance, modification and support services, others being in Australia, Dubai, New Zealand and the Philippines. The group offers a “one-stop shop” service covering design engineering, major modifications, special-mission equipment, maintenance control, line- and heavy-maintenance checks, and engine and component overhaul capabilities.

Established in 1978 (as Allied Signal Singapore), Honeywell Aerospace (Singapore) operates as a repair and overhaul (R&O) facility and regional parts distribution center for customer support in the Asia Pacific region. The U.S. company (Booth Q23) has established the Singapore Honeywell and Airline Reporting Exchange Database portal, which is said to offer Asia Pacific airline customers an R&O-status tracking system, plus services such as “chat,” discussion boards and technical help.

With many Honeywell operations having been in Singapore for 25 or more years, the company employs 600 people in four primary facilities:

• The Chee Chai site has delivered more than 120,000 avionics modules, flight-data recorders and enhanced ground-proximity warning system units since 1985. • The Loyang site is considered a major Asia Pacific MRO site for avionics and products, with an annual output of nearly 6,000 units. •The Gul Circle facility–Honeywell’s largest MRO site in Asia–has serviced more than 8,000 auxiliary power units (APUs) and engines since 1978.

• The Joo Koon facility is Honeywell’s largest facility in Singapore at 57,000 sq ft.

Nordam Singapore (Booth S23) repairs commercial aircraft engine thrust reversers. The U.S. group makes nacelles, aircraft windows and aerostructures.

Standard Aero (Booth T95) operates one of its 12 primary service facilities in Singapore. The Dubai Aerospace Enterprise engineering-division subsidiary specializes in engine MRO and nose-to-tail services that include airframe, interior refurbishments and paint. 

Thales Singapore (Booth J57), which employs 180 people, is part of the European group’s aerospace business that specializes in aeronautical equipment, mission electronics for current combat aircraft, airborne surveillance and mission systems.