Seoul’s Incheon International airport is seeking an independent MRO company to set up a maintenance facility on a 102,000 square metre plot adjacent to its passenger terminals.
Speaking to FlightGlobal at Routes Asia in Okinawa, the airport’s vice president of hub strategy Lim Byung Kee says that the MRO complex is expected to be completed in the next 20 years.
MRO complex is expected to house engine, painting and component shops, as well as hangars to conduct airframe heavy checks and line maintenance. Lee adds that its target customers will be Korean low-cost carriers and third-party airlines.
“As an airport, we have neglected MRO for a while and have seen the leakage of business to other countries around the region. We simply want to bring back some national revenue,” explains Lee.
Incentives on offer for the right partner include certain exemptions on corporate taxes and discounts on the lease of the land.
However, Lee admits that Korea's relatively high labour costs remain a major obstacle to making the MRO complex a success. “We hope that our high-tech equipment and efficiency can make up for it,” he adds.
Lee says that having a dedicated MRO complex will help boost Incheon’s hub status, and supplement its growing passenger operations.
The airport's second passenger terminal is scheduled to open in 2018, and will become the new home for Korean Air and some of its Skyteam partner carriers. The new terminal is expected to raise Incheon’s overall capacity to 62 million passengers per annum.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
