GMF AeroAsia: Working on the Korean Market, GMF Cooperated with Muan County Office and TWA Aero Limi

PT Garuda Maintenance Facility AeroAsia Tbk. (GMF) showed progress in its expansion plans by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Muan County Office and TWA AERO Limited for MRO facilities development in South Korea. The MoU signing ceremony was represented by GMF Director of Line Operation Tazar Marta Kurniawan, Deputy Mayor Muan County Office Park Jun Soo, and TWA Aero Limited Authorized Signatory Ian P. Scheyer at Muan County Office (6/12).

During GMF management visit to South Korea which was held from December 4 to 7, besides MoU signing ceremony, GMF also held an initial meeting with other potential partners and visited South Korean customers.

Director of Line Operation GMF, Tazar Marta Kurniawan said that this MoU signing ceremony marks a new beginning of GMF's global footprint development strategy. "As per GMF strategic plan to develop MRO facilities in the East Asia region, we chose South Korea as the desirable global footprint," Tazar said.

According to Tazar, South Korea was chosen to develop the global footprint in East Asia region by considering its promising aircraft maintenance market which scaled fourth in the Asia Pacific region after China, Japan, and Australia. Its fleet growth increased from 180 to 340, equivalent to 1.9 times in the past 10 years. "Acknowledging the aircraft types utilized by South Korean airlines, 93% of them can be maintained in GMF which has the required capability," he said. Furthermore, the aircraft maintenance cost in South Korea is US $ 1.5 billion in total. However, the domestic absorption is not more than 46%.

On that account, Tazar stated that this MRO facilities development can support the development of MRO industry in South Korea as well as strengthen the partnership with South Korean customers. "We believe that this strategy can increase our market in our facilities, both in Cengkareng and South Korea. This development is also expected to be our front liner in order to increase market penetration in this country," he added.
Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor Muan County Office welcomed this partnership. "We hope that this partnership can develop the emerging MRO industry in Korea," he said. Following the MoU singing, GMF, TWA Aero Limited and Muan County Office will jointly establish a feasibility study and discover the proper business model which is expected to be done in the first quarter 2018.

In line with GMF's strategy to reach Korean maintenance market, GMF is also supported by the Korean Civil Aviation Authority, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT), by giving the certificate of approval since 2013. Since then, GMF is able to maintain several Korean airlines.
Recently, GMF received an additional approval from MOLIT to perform base maintenance for Airbus A320 family. "This approval is targeting our customers in South Korea since this aircraft type is widely used by South Korean airlines", Tazar said.