Garuda to develop maintenance facility in Batam
GARUDA Maintenance Facility Aero Asia, a subsidiary of Garuda Indonesia, will develop a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility for planes on Batam Island in the Riau Islands.
The US$41 million (Bt1.4 billion) MRO facility will be located near Hang Nadim Airport in Batam, said GMF Aero Asia president director Juliandra Nurtjahjo here on Monday.
Initially, the facility was supposed to be on Bintan Island in the same province.
“We moved the MRO facility to Batam after conducting a final review. The readiness of the infrastructure owned by Hang Nadim Airport was taken into consideration,” he said.
The 25,000-square-metre project will occupy a five-hectare site.
The ground-breaking ceremony will be held late this year and construction is expected to be completed next year.
“Our target is to repair planes for international flights. Therefore, we have partnered with companies from Holland and Japan to operate the MRO facility,” he said.
Domestic flights would be handled by an MRO facility at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport near Jakarta, he said.
GMF Aero Asia will also develop a logistics warehouse to store spare parts needed for the operation of the facility.
“Batam’s location, which is close to Singapore, could be a hub for Asian aviation,” he added.
