Seoul has approved Korea Aerospace Industries' (KAI) plans to establish a commercial MRO operation at Saechon.
South Korea's ministry of land, infrastructure and transport says that KAI's business plan for the unit was approved on 18 December, after an evaluation committee found that the company had sufficient infrastructure such as facilities and equipment to set up the state-sponsored MRO business.
KAI will reportedly invest W510 billion ($469 million) in the project, while the Saechon municipal and Gyeongnam provincial governments will pump in W90 billion. Seoul will inject a further W100 billion.
The new company is expected to be established in March 2018, with operations to commence in December.
It is expected that the new facility could save Korean carriers around W44 billion, with around 49% of MRO work presently done overseas.
KAI has military MRO experience on aircraft such as the H-53, F-16, KT-1 and the T-50.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
