Batam Aero Technic Opens First of Four Hangars at Hang Nadim International Airport

Batam Aero Technic has officially opened the first of four hangars at its new facility at Hang Nadim International Airport.

"We will start doing airframe heavy maintenance from this hangar in February," said Batam Aero Technic president director, Romdani Adali Adang. The second hangar is due to be completed shortly and the other two by end of June, he says.

The first heavy maintenance check that Batam Aero Technic will do in Batam will be a 'C-check' on a Boeing 737. And next year it will do its first 'D-check' at this facility.

Each hangar has three bays, which means it can handle three large narrow bodies simultaneously. Batam Aero Technic will initially focus on Boeing 737 maintenance, but plans to expand its repertoire to include other types, such as Airbus A320s. It also plans to do heavy checks on wide bodies. Each hangar can accommodate aircraft as large as the Airbus A380.

Batam Aero Technic already has 100 maintenance engineers and technicians in Batam and aims to eventually have 2,000 employees there. This is once the four hangars are fully operational, as well Batam Aero Technic's workshops - for engines, landing gears, auxiliary power units and components - are up and running. The whole facility is an investment of US$250 million.

"We can see there are relatively few heavy maintenance facilities in Indonesia, despite the fact that Indonesia is one of the largest domestic aviation markets in the world," said Romdani. "Some airlines are sending their aircraft overseas for heavy maintenance checks. But it costs money to ferry empty aircraft overseas and doing heavy checks is very labour intensive work. Therefore, it makes more sense for this work to be done in Indonesia."

The new MRO facility aims to be EASA certified. It will work on aircraft from Lion Group and Lion Group's overseas affiliates, as well as work on aircraft from third-party customers.

Batam Aero Technic also plans to add even more hangars in Batam for airframe heavy maintenance checks. "The four hangars altogether have 12 bays, but we plan to build more hangars and have 36 bays in total in future," Romdani added.

See also: Lion Group Plans to Make Island Close to Singapore a Major Hub.