Singapore Airlines unit to expand Clark facility

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines  — A unit of Singapore Airlines will build its second aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) hangar here at a cost of about P1 billion to provide services for Boeing 747 and 777 aircraft.

“The expansion project will generate 300 direct jobs,” Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) president and chief executive officer Victor Jose Luciano said, noting that the hangar construction will start next week.

“It will be a bigger hangar to accommodate wide-bodied aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and 777.”

In November 2008, Singapore Airlines Engineering Co. (SIAEC), together with its joint venture partner Cebu Air, put up its first hangar costing P800 million for the Airbus 320 and 319 series aircraft located within the 2,367-hectare Clark Civil Aviation Complex. The hangar started operations in July 2009.

“The second, much larger hangar in Clark will generate no less than 300 direct jobs and about 200 indirect jobs for our people in Central and Northern Luzon. SIAEC will spend about P1 billion for the construction of the second hangar which is expected to be operational by the end of 2012,” Luciano noted.

SIAEC is a leading aircraft MRO company providing total maintenance solutions to wide-bodied aircraft of more than 85 international airlines worldwide.

“With certifications from more than 20 airworthiness authorities, SIAEC’s six hangars and 22 in-house workshops in Singapore provide complete MRO services in airframe, component, engine, aircraft conversions, and modifications to major airlines from four continents,” CIAC added.

It noted that SIAEC also provides support services at the Changi International Airport in Singapore as well as line maintenance support services to countries such as Australia, United States, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Meanwhile, CIAC officials have noted full bookings of Jin Air, South Korea’s budget airline, since it started its five-times-weekly regular flights between Clark and Incheon last month.

“We welcome Jin Air’s regular flights at DMIA that would not only bring in more Korean tourists to Clark but also give the people of Northern Luzon the opportunity to visit the beautiful country of Korea,” Luciano said.

He said Jin Air now operates five flights weekly utilizing the airlines’ 180-seater Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

Jin Air is the sixth and latest addition to the international airlines operating at the DMIA and is the second South Korean commercial airline after Asiana Airlines that started operations in October 2003, he noted.

Jin Air is a full subsidiary of Korean Air, the flag carrier and the largest airline of South Korea. Korean Air serves 130 cities in 45 countries around the world while its domestic divisions serve 20 destinations.