KUALA LUMPUR: Sepang Aircraft Engineering (SAE) Sdn Bhd aims to service 80 aircraft next year, versus 60 to-date, as the company’s three new hangars will start operations then, said Commercial and Marketing Head, To Chow Leah.
SAE, an Airbus SAS unit and part of the Airbus Group, provides maintenance, repair and overhaul services for commercial aircraft, engines and components and support services for Airbus aircraft in South-East Asia.
To said the company, which holds between 20 to 30 per cent market share in the A320 and ATR aircraft segments in South-East Asia, is waiting to kick-start the operations of its new hangar, which will be able to cater to two A320s at a time. At present, SAE’s hangar consists of six lines to accommodate six aircraft at a time, he said.
“We are also in the midst of expanding our facility. We will add another two lines and one paint hangar. The paint hanger will be fully-enclosed and fully-ventilated,” he said.
He said SAE aims to run at full capacity – six aircraft concurrently and in between, “we will do some other smaller checks to fill the gap,” he told Bernama on the sidelines of the Kuala Lumpur International Aerospace Business Convention 2016 from Dec 7-9.
SAE, backed by its parent company, has established a good footprint in the region as it not only services local customers, but also aircraft from Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Globally, the Airbus’ orders as of Nov 30, stood at 16,761 and the overall backlog as at end-November 2016 stood at 6,664, comprising 5,460 A320 Family jetliners, 324 A330s, 761 A350 XWBs and 119 A380s.
On outlook, To said, the industry will move in parallel with the travelling trend.
“What I can see in terms of travelling is that there is no stopping, the growth is still there as you can see the order for aircraft is still there, the fleet order is still growing so with that maintenance has still to go on,” he said. However, he said, Airbus SAS will decide on the best strategy, going forward. — Bernama