Aviation Week & Space Technology - 3 November 2014

Jeremy Torr Singapore

MRO Help Wanted

Airframers are selling aircraft in Asia faster than

to any other region. But who will maintain them?

W

ith both Boeing and Airbus
flagging major expansion of
operator fleets across the
Asian region—Airbus says 39% of its
ongoing sales to 2033 will be in Asia
and Boeing says expanding fleets will
demand 224,000 new technicians by
the same date—the outlook for MROs
across the region should be rosy. How-
ever, finding those 224,000 technicians
is likely to give both MRO operators
and training and educational establish-
ments alike severe headaches.
Asia, unlike the U.S. and Europe,
does not have a steady and predictable
flow of ex-military personnel waiting to
fill civilian roles. Most of the technicians
employed at Asian MROs are commer-
cial recruits, or come direct from spe-
cialist educational courses.
Which means they will have come
through a specialist schedule that can
take years to complete. And they will
have opted for an engineering career
over what many see as more glamor-
ous options, medicine, finance or law.
It’s a big request—and one that is not
being answered.
“The supply of the right skills [re-
gionally] is not yet fully ready to fulfill
the aviation industry’s [future] needs,”
warns Indonesia-based GMF AeroAsia
spokesperson Mochamad Aviv.
Aviv says his company, the MRO
subsidiary of Garuda Indonesia, has
had to develop a recruitment strategy
that meets immediate industry de-
mands, yet at the same time prepares
for projected expansion.
Although he says that the current
pipeline in Indonesia is coping, he ad-
mits “we still [have to] compromise for
dynamic demands,” if specific new busi-
ness comes in that staf are not trained
for. As a result, GMF has chosen an in-
novative approach that taps into and le-
verages its existing rating as an Aircraft
Maintenance Training Organization
(AMTO) Part 147 approved operation.
“As we already have AMTO 147 ap-
proval, we have used that to create
[direct] partnerships with certain
universities and polytechnics,” he ex-

plains. He says this has allowed the

non-specialist educators to tap into

GMF’s accreditation standards, yet

produce courses that fully conform to

AMTO 147 Civil Aviation Safety Regu-

lations (CASR) requirements.

GMF thinks this approach will help

ofset what it sees as a limited future

supply from industry-specific training

establishments, as well as ensuring

oversight to full aviation standards

from Indonesia’s Directorate General

of Civil Aviation.

GMF’s proactive approach to a

looming Asian technician bottleneck

is being echoed in Singapore.

“From what we see, there is a five-

year lag from the point of demand,”

says Lim Serh Ghee, COO at Singa-

pore’s largest MRO, ST Aerospace.

Lim says STA, like GMF, has been

working on “strong symbiotic rela-

tionships with local educational insti-

tutions” that will help satisfy the com-

pany’s future stafng needs. “We are

doing our part, working closely with

the local education institutions to build

up the talent pool,” he says.

STA sits on the advisory commit-

tees of local Institutes of Technical

Education (ITE), Polytechnics, and

Singapore’s private university UniSIM

to “[efectively] collaborate in the edu-

cation and development of manpower

to address the changing dynamics of

the industry,” says Lim.

Educators are also aware of the

impending numbers crunch in the

aviation industry. Ng Teng Yong, act-

ing head of the division of aerospace

engineering at Singapore’s Nanyang

Technological University (NTU), says

that although the university has no

problem attracting the brightest stu-

dents to its courses, there are always a

certain proportion that are lured away

by the prospect of a lucrative career in

finance or other business.

“We take some 80-120 of the best

students every year, and many go on to

work at companies like Rolls-Royce or

Pratt & Whitney,” he says. “But we do

see a certain number of the cream of

the crop going to finance and so on,” he

admits, “so what we try to emphasize

is the career prospects that come [in

aviation].”

Ng says the big plus for new re-

cruits into aerospace generally is that

the good students can have their pick

of jobs in Asia, the U.S., and the U.K.,

although he notes that today the “ma-

jority” stay in Asia, where they see the

rapid expansion of the sector as ofer-

ing more dynamic prospects.

“There are—and we think there will

continue to be—plenty of really good

job oferings here,” he says. And like

GMF and STA, Ng points out that the

close links between educational estab-

lishments like NTU and the industry

itself are vital.

NTU runs a series of regional road-

shows designed to explain the attrac-

tions of a career in aviation engineer-

ing, although Ng says that most trainees

and students probably already know

what they are looking for.

GMF’s Aviv agrees, noting that as

aviation becomes a more prominent

sector in the region, it will only attract

more trainees. “The trend is increas-

ing and we believe that [aviation] will

become a [career] trend for school

leavers,” he says.

To meet staff demands in coming

years, Lim says it is vital to engage

young talent during their course of

study. And part of this, he says, is

maintaining ongoing training and skills

upgrades. “It is crucial to ensure con-

tinued availability of [a highly skilled]

talent pool. We believe in investing

in our employees and supporting the

industry with the next generation of

highly skilled and competent aviation

professionals,” says Lim. c

AviationWeek.com/mro AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY MRO EDITION NOVEMBER 3/10, 2014 MRO15

ST Aerospace works closely with

local education establishments to

maintain a pipeline of trainees.

ST AEROSPACE

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