Garuda Indonesia inaugurates GMF 'Hangar 4', world's biggest narrow body hangar

JAKARTA - As a continuous business expansion program, designed to cope with the increased demands in narrow body aircraft maintenance, Garuda Maintenance Facilities (GMF) AeroAsia, a subsidiary of Garuda Indonesia, has completed the construction of Hangar 4, the world's biggest narrow body aircraft hangar with a maintenance capacity of up to 16 narrow body aircraft including one bay for aircraft painting.

GMF's Hangar 4 was officially launched on September 28, by Indonesian State-owned Enterprise Minister, Rini M. Soemarno, accompanied by the President and CEO of Garuda Indonesia, M. Arif Wibowo, at the GMF AeroAsia area in Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Minister Rini M. Soemarno explained that Hangar 4 is expected to not only provide stronger support for the Garuda Indonesia Group's main business, but also to increase the company's revenue. "Hangar 4 will strengthen the position of GMF as a global player in the world's Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) industry," she added.

Garuda President & CEO M. Arif Wibowo stated that the increased capacity of GMF, with Hangar 4, is an example of concrete support from GMF AeroAsia, as a subsidiary, for Garuda Indonesia's sustainable business expansion program. "By the year 2020, the Garuda Indonesia Group will eventually operate a total of 241 aircraft. Also, Hangar 4 is a strategic initiative of GMF AeroAsia in seizing a large portion of the narrow-body aircraft maintenance market in Asia Pacific, which is forecast to become market leader in the MRO business, and furthermore, becoming a market leader for the largest aircraft maintenance business over the next five years," Arif added.

In the midst of rapid growth and expansion in Indonesia's aviation industry, the presence of Hangar 4 marks a new business opportunity and prospective investment to reinforce the national MRO industry. Supported by thousands of highly skilled workers, Hangar 4 is expected to optimally support both local and international airlines to comply with the global aviation safety standard as well as the accesibility of spare parts requirements.

The President & CEO of GMF AeroAsia, Richard Budihadianto, explained that the concept of Hangar 4 is "The Butterfly", consisting of two wings, with an office area and workshop in middle of the Hangar. "This concept comes from the willingness to have a Hangar with an international standard and a futuristic design. From the operational aspect, Hangar 4 GMF AeroAsia is highly effective because aircraft movement will be more flexible," he added.

"The unique design of Hangar 4 is evidenced by the implementation of an eco friendly concept. This ecofriendly building concept is GMF's responsibility to the earth. This concept is contained in the special construction of the Hangar, such as skylights on the roof and Panasap Glass on the walls of the Hangar to help optimize natural sunlight, the second floor's (office), has a curtain wall with laminated glass to maximize light circulation for a modern and transparent look, aluminum ceilings minimize air turbulence, while the roof has been designed to allow water to drain easily and therefore reduce the impact on the facade. Hangar 4 uses Metal Halide lamps to create white light and low electricity consumption," said Richard.

The whole construction of GMF's Hangar 4 was completed by Indonesians and this Hangar was built on a 66.940 m2 area with 64.000m2 available for production area and 17.600 m2 allocated for office space. Hangar 4 has the capability to maintain 16 narrow body aircraft at one time and one bay is also dedicated for aircraft painting. GMF's Hangar 4 can accommodate 16 narrow body aircraft in a parallel formation, with heavy and light maintenance, winglet modification, structure repairs, interior modifications, painting and other maintenance available.

GMF's Hangar 4 utilization will be completed in phases and is therefore expected to reach its full capacity (16 slots operationalized) in 2018. By 2016, GMF has predicted it will hace completed 209 maintenance projects, which will then increase by the next year to 250 maintenance projects, with 313 maintenance projects expected by 2018.

With the addition of the maintenance capacity of aircraft, it is then projected that the amount of man power involved in aircraft maintenance work plan in 2016 will amount to 121 persons, in 2017 as many as 179 persons and by 2018 as many as 238 persons. In other words, GMF will create many new job opportunities with as many as 438 persons within the next three years.

GMF's Hangar 4 utilization will be completed in phases and will reach its full capacity in 2018. Currently, GMF has 167 projects for narrow body aircraft and it is estimated this will increase from 167 to 313 projects or an increase of 87 percent by 2018. The increase in projected revenues from the GMF's Hangar 4 is set at USD 86 million or 150 percent of the existing income. "Currently, the income of the capacity of the existing narrow body hangar is equal to USD 57 million, so with this new hangar, in 2018, GMF's revenue is projected to rise to USD 143 million," Richard said.

sourced:traveldailynews.asia