Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews Dec 20, 2012 ST Aerospace today announced that it has injected an additional $73.5m into the capital of wholly-owned subsidiary, ST Aerospace Rotables Pte. Ltd. (STAR).  This brings ST Aerospace’s total share capital contribution in STAR to $75m (S$91.6m).   STAR will utilise the additional funds to build up the rotables asset pool as it broadens the scope of its component total support capability.  Established in September 2012 in Singapore, STAR is a global asset services company that focuses on rotable assets leasing, asset trading, rotables loan and exchange.  It will also be leasing assets to support the aerospace sector’s Maintenance-By-the-Hour program..  

Neelam Mathews Nov 5, 2012 ST Aerospace is adding a narrow-body aircraft hangar at its Changi facility in Singapore.  The total investment in the hangar and associated equipment amounts to $11m.  The new hangar is expected to be operational by the end of third quarter 2013.   At over 3,600 sq.m, the new hangar will be able to accommodate two narrow-body aircraft such as the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, contributing an additional 200,000 man-hours annually.   The capacity expansion is in response to robust demand for ST Aerospace’s line and base maintenance services at Changi, especially from the growing fleet of low-cost carriers which typically operate narrow-body aircraft.     Apart from Changi, ST Aerospace operates two other airframe maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities in Singapore located in Seletar Aerospace Park and Paya Lebar.  In February this year, it commenced construction to expand its Seletar facility.  The ad...

Neelam Mathews Oct 10, 2012 Given the high taxes throttling India's MRO industry, it might do India some good to learn from Singapore's MRO report card. ST Aerospace today announced it has secured new contracts worth about S$590m in the third quarter of 2012.  This total contract value is in addition to the component repair management Maintenance-By-the-Hour (MBH) contract worth about US$80m (approximately S$102m) awarded by AirAsia in July this year.   The contracts are for airframe, component and engine maintenance and engineering design support, which will be carried out through its global network.     During the quarter, ST Aerospace redelivered its first VIP Boeing Business Jet, a contract secured for B level check and interior modifications.  Additionally, it completed airframe maintenance and modification work for 156 aircraft.  For passenger-to-freighter conversions, it redelivered three converted Boeing 757-200 freighters to FedEx Expres...

Neelam Mathews Aug 8, 2012 The first M-346 advanced trainer for the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) was rolled out in a ceremony held at Alenia Aermacchi’s plant in Venegono Superiore, Italy. The rollout follows the obtaining of the type certificate and the first flight made by this aircraft in July 2012. The delivery of the first M-346 is scheduled for the end of 2012. In September 2010, ST Aerospace, as the prime contractor, teaming with Alenia Aermacchi (a Finmeccanica company) and The Boeing Company, was awarded a contract to supply 12 M-346 aircraft and ground based training system for the RSAF’s Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) program.   “We signed the contract less than two years ago and today we have rolled out the first of twelve M-346 aircraft for the RSAF’s Advanced Jet Trainer program. This is a particularly important moment for our company, a great team job has been achieved in strict collaboration with our industrial counterpart, ST Aerospace, a...

Posted by- Neelam Mathews Nov 8, 2011 ST Aerospace has been certified as a Part 147 Maintenance Training Organisation (MTO) by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to provide aircraft type training for narrow-body and wide-body aircraft.   The training courses will be conducted at ST Aerospace’s dedicated technical training center in Paya Lebar, Singapore. Certified since October 2007 as a SAR 147 MTO by CAAS, ST Aerospace is also authorised to provide basic engineering courses under the SAR 66 curriculum which leads to the Aircraft Maintenance Engineer licence.   The two certifications further strengthen ST Aerospace’s position as an integrated service provider with solutions extending from engineering design and aircraft maintenance to fleet management and training. Boeing has projected that the world’s airlines will need to add 650,000 maintenance personnel over the next 20 years.  The most rapid growth in ...

Posted by- Neelam Mathews Sept 27, 2011 ST Aerospace’s commercial pilot training arm, ST Aerospace Academy is investing $ 15million   over six months to expand its operations to better meet the increasing demand for its programs. As part of capacity expansion, STAA recently added a new facility at the perimeter of Ballarat Airport in Australia.  It comprises 1,300sqm of administrative space and 7,700sqm of classroom facilities.  It is also developing a new Flight Operations Center at Ballarat Airport, which is expected to be ready by end 2011.   The FOC will feature an aircraft apron that can accommodate a fleet of up to 40 aircraft.  STAA’s current facility is about 200m from the new location and can accommodate up to 20 aircraft.   In line with its plan to establish a simulator centre in Singapore, STAA has acquired an Airbus A320 flight simulator, which will be delivered in July 2012.  Upon delivery, it will be housed in the centre curre...

Posted by- Neelam Mathews Sept 21, 2011 Indian companies may do well to learn from ST Aerospace’s MoU signed with SIM University   to co-operate in the education and development of manpower for Singapore’s aerospace industry.   The MoU, effective for 10 years, is an extension of an existing collaboration between ST Aerospace and UniSIM first established in March 2008. Under the MoU, ST Aerospace will play an advisory role to contribute industry expertise to the aerospace degree programmes offered by UniSIM.  ST Aerospace will also offer students enrolled in these programmes opportunities to gain familiarisation and practical experience at its facility.   Under the scope of collaboration, ST Aerospace and UniSIM will also work together in the areas of scholarships, research and knowledge-sharing.  In addition, both parties will undertake associate teaching activities at each other’s facilities. “This renewal of partnership with ST Aerospace for a signi...

Posted by- Neelam Mathews July 27, 2011 As India struggles to get its MRO business moving, ST Aerospace has sealed over S$260m worth of new maintenance contracts in the second quarter of 2011.  Ranging from three to 12 months, these contracts for the Aircraft Maintenance & Modification, Component Total Support and Engine Total Support businesses will be carried out at its facilities in the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe.  The value of the contracts excludes the recent announcement of the 20-year logistics support contract for the 12 M346 aircraft, of which the first year’s contract value is estimated at about S$50million, says a statement. The new airframe contracts secured for the Aircraft Maintenance & Modification business group cover line maintenance, base maintenance, heavy maintenance, passenger-to-freighter (PTF) conversion and interior refurbishment on various commercial and military aircraft platforms.   For the three months ended June 2011, S...

Posted by- Neelam Mathews June 26, 2011 Alenia Aermacchi – a company of Finmeccanica’s Aeronautics Sector led by Alenia Aeronautica – has finalised with Singapore's ST Aerospace, the logistics support contracts for the 12 M-346 trainers sold at the end of September 2010 for the Singapore Air Force. The two contracts are expected to generate total sales of around EUR 170 million. The first contract (Supply Chain Management) envisages the joint management of the M-346 suppliers by Alenia Aermacchi and ST Aerospace (after-sales support, including spare parts provisioning, repair and overhaul services) with sharing of risks, sales and profits between the two companies. The other contract (Operations and Support) concerns instead the supply by Alenia Aermacchi of engineering support, program/contract management and field support services. “The two contracts for Singapore confirm the success of the high-technology Italian industry and the primacy at international level of this ai...