SIA Engineering expands line maintenance service in Japan

It will commence operations at Kansai International Airport.

SIA Engineering recently announced that it has established a wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan to provide line maintenance (LM) services at airports in Japan on receipt of relevant approvals from authorities.

According to OCBC Investment Research, SIAEC shall commence operations at Kansai International Airport and intends to expand its presence with other service offerings as well as to other airports at a later stage.

"In our view, this is a positive long-term growth plan as the traditional heavier checks on new-generation aircraft are now broken down into multiple phases to be performed on the apron (i.e. line maintenance) to reduce aircraft ground time in hangars," the brokerage firm said.

It added, "Looking ahead, we also expect SIAEC to continue to expand its LM network in order to better serve its customers. The latest addition also expands SIAEC LM network to 37 airports in eight countries, and over 900 flights daily for more than 70 airlines. All said, we expect this strategy to progressively bear fruit and is unlikely to have any immediate near-term impact."