FBOs and Product Support Drive BBA’s Growth in Asia

SINGAPORE AIR SHOW » 2014

by  NEELAM MATHEWS

February 11, 2014, 4:55 AM

Looking at organic growth in 2014, BBA Aviation (Booth D63), a global provider for support and aftermarket services, is viewing opportunities for acquisitions this year, according to the UK-based group’s Asia Pacific president David Best. He did not elaborate on possible targets but the group has acknowledged that it would like to add to its already-extensive chain of FBOs, which includes a new base at Singapore’s Changi Airport. “We will carry on extending scope and scale from our Singapore base,” he told AIN, adding “We welcome [economic] recovery in Asia Pacific.”

During 2013, the company’s Signature Flight Support FBOnetwork and its Ontic manufacturing and aftermarket support division both started operations in Singapore alongside its turbine engine repair facility operated by subsidiary Dallas Airmotive, which is exhibiting at the Singapore Airshow for the first time. The two-year old Dallas Airmotive facility at Seletar Aerospace Park is the only Honeywell-approved major periodic inspection center for TFE731 engines in the region.

Last year, Ontic opened a new maintenance repair and overhaul facility for fuel measurement systems in Singapore and this already supports 27 Asia Pacific airline customers. The company specializes in “extended life solutions” for OEMlegacy products and systems for commercial, military and business aircraft.

Here at the Singapore Airshow, Ontic has announced a new license agreement covering production and support for Curtiss-Wright military and commercial electronics units, such as logic modules, smoke detector sensors, power supplies and converters. The company’s UK division has also just signed a separate agreement with Rolls-Royce covering manufacturing and worldwide distribution rights for Dart aircraft engines.

Viewing Singapore as “an important hub,” Best said Southeast Asia’s growing business and general aviation market holds great potential. Unlike North America, where the typical evolution of the market has been for customers to start with smaller aircraft, a noticeable trend in Asia is a preference for larger jets. But the region’s still-young business aviation sector faces significant regulatory challenges, and Best is seeking to improve this situation through his work as a vice chairman of the Asian Business Aviation Association.

Earlier this month BBA completed the sale of the share capital of its full-service landing gear and hydraulic sub-systems supplier, APPH, a part of its aftermarket sales division, to Héroux-Devtek Inc. for $128 million.