Jakarta. Lithuanian aircraft maintenance company FL Technics announced on Tuesday a plan to invest $20 million in its Indonesian unit.

Speaking at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, FL Technics Indonesia chief executive Martynas Grigalavicius said the money will be spent on expanding its hangar at the airport to 10,000 square meters and increase its capacity from three aircraft to nine. 

The expansion will also add 200 new jobs. 

"We currently employ 260 workers, 250 of them are Indonesians," Grigalavicius said. 

"The non-Indonesian staff are our skilled managers from Europe. They are here to bring their expertise and establish the standards of quality we want to achieve, and to train the local staff," he said.

According to Grigalavicius, professional training is a key factor in the business and all mechanics must undergo a three-month training under international instructors in Indonesia, before being sent to the company's main facility in Lithuania for another month of training.

Most of the company's employees in Indonesia, around 200 of them, are engineers and technicians.

Andi Bardiansyah, an official with the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), said FL Technics is the only foreign company that runs an aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) service in Indonesia. 

He said the company's investment shows that the business climate in Indonesia is improving.

"This shows there are as many business opportunities in Indonesia as in our fellow Asean member countries, and that we have retained our global competitiveness amid the US-China trade war," Andi said.

"We will continue to improve our investment climate. BKPM is ready to assist FL Technics to put its investment to good use," he said. 

Fery Utameyasa, the general manager of airport operator Angkasa Pura II, praised FL Technics' initiative to employ mostly local mechanics, saying the move was in line with the government's goal to improve workers' skills.

He said there are also several reputable locally-owned aircraft MRO services in Indonesia, including the Garuda Maintenance Facility AeroAsia (GMF) that employs around 5,000 people and is among the biggest in Asia.

"We have MRO businesses run by Indonesians, and we can say they are not behind foreign ones. We've seen that FL Technics has skilled manpower, and we [Soekarno-Hatta International Airport] can benefit so much from their presence as a partner," Fery said.

"We can learn more about the challenges in managing an MRO business, especially how to navigate the market. Transfer of knowledge is one of the biggest benefits we get from [FL Technics] being here," he said. 

FL Technics has many local airlines as clients, including Batik Air, Lion Air, Trigana Air, Sriwijaya Air, Airfast Indonesia, My Indo Airlines, NAM Air and Tri M G Airlines.

Its international clients include Etihad, Emirates, Thai VietJet Air, Turkish Airlines and Air Asia.

FL Technics is part of Avia Solutions Group, an aerospace conglomerate based in Central and Eastern Europe. It acquired the hangar at Soekarno-Hatta from Batavia Air in 2015 after the Indonesian airliner went bankrupt. 
 

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