Singapore International Airlines Engineering Philippines (SIAEP), a joint venture by SIA Engineering Ltd. of Singapore and Cebu Pacific. Inc., will start construction of its new hangar that will have two bays and can accommodate the biggest passenger airliner in the world.
During the “Balitaan” media forum organized by the Capampangan in Media, Inc. in cooperation with the Clark Development Corp at the Bale Balita here on Friday, Rene Philip Banzon, deputy general manager of SIAEP, said the construction of Hangar 4 will start by June or at the latest in September and will be finished by the end of next year.
The MRO facility at present features three hangars in its 10-hectare area which have five bays.
Hangars 1 and 2 have one bay each while Hangar 3, for wide-bodied aircraft, has three bays. Wide-bodied aircraft includes the Airbus A330, A350, A380 and Boeing 777.
Hangar 4, which will have two bays when completed, will be put up besides Hangar 3, according to Banzon.
Every hangar cost about $20 million while $70 million have already been invested in the company, Banzon said.
SIAEP signed a lease agreement with the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) in 2008 and began operating in August the following year.
Among SIAEP’s regular customers are Cebu Pacific, Philippines Air Asia, Tiger Australia, Tiger Scoot of Singapore and Silk Air.
The biggest lessors in the world, Gcast at Aeircap, are also its customers. Banzon said SIAEP services Virgin Australia that comes here for maintenance.
“That’s why we always say they are here by choice,” he quipped.
SIAEP is also the only Embraer service center in the entire Asia-Pacific region. Embraer is a Brazilian aerospace conglomerate that produces commercial, military, executive and agricultural aircraft and provides aeronautical services.
“Every two years airlines have a required check,” he said.
600 SIAEP employees
Banzon said 75 percent of its close to 600 employees are highly skilled workers.
He said SIAEP employees are mostly from the region “but our hiring is from all over the Philippines. We also have eight expats – four Singaporeans, one Indian, one Australian, one Serbian and one Korean.”
Banzon said SIAEP trains its employees who are mostly graduates of aircraft maintenance course.
“We train them here for a year,” he said.
“Our training school has handled 25 batches of mechanics already and each batch has 32 trainees. Three failures and they get booted out while at least 24 graduate from the training. Now even foreigners come here for training,” he said.
He noted that Filipinos have a sincere attitude in work and are mostly dedicated workers.
“That is why they are very valuable employees,” he said. “In the Middle East, they hire mostly Filipinos,” he added.
“It is said that if they see a SIAEP ID, they get hired immediately,” he said.
“That is why we constantly train our recruits even if some leave for greener pastures,” he added.
Banzon said the starting salary at SIAEP is around P12,000 to P15,000.
“But if you grow with the company, it becomes big like inspectors are now making P100,000 a month while a unit chief around P80,000,” he said.
“The job is highly technical and regulated,” he added.
Banzon said SIAEP Line Maintenance is a 24-hour job at the airport and workers come in shifts. Before the aircraft leaves the airport, it undergoes a series of checks. But Base Maintenance is only eight hours with one shift, Banzon said.
Majority of the airlines flying in to Clark are serviced by SIAEP while Philippine Airlines (PAL) is “self-handling” since they have their own, said Banzon.
But PAL’s hanger here is used only for parking because it has no maintenance, he noted. Restricted road Banzon said at the moment, SIAEP personnel have to pass through a temporary gate at the Clark International Airport south perimeter fence.
He said the Philippine Air Force (PAF) has refused entry for SIAEP personnel along J. Calvo Street which they closed as well as A. Bonifacio Avenue which was also closed that leads directly to SIAEP.
“Even if we get the necessary gate passes from PAF, CIAC and our own ID to use the road, we get stuck if there is an ongoing military drill or alert and everything standstills, everybody is on hold,” he said.
“That is why the CIAC built a new road access from the main highway, M.A. Roxas Avenue. But that still poses a threat to our personnel especially now we are advised to park across the highway,” he complained.
“That is why we made a request to allow us to park inside the fence area,” he said.
Banzon said SIAEP has acquired 50-seater busses for their personnel.
“We are now waiting for our 50-seater busses so this is a big improvement for our services for our staff ,” he said.
More hangars “Our facility has space for six hangars and we feel we will be able to fulfill six hangars in time,” he said.
“After Hangar 4 is finished by next year, we will start planning for Hangar 5 and 6,” he said.
“With the way we are going, in five years we may be able to complete Hangar 6 which will be bigger,” he said.
“We continue to grow and maybe we will have a minimum of 1,000 highly skilled employees by that time,” he noted.
