Hawker Pacific (HP) Asia and Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) yesterday for HP to take up an additional 1.6 hectares (four acres) of land in the Seletar Aerospace Park (SAP). This will see HP's footprint in the SAP almost doubled from its current 9,400 square meters (101,000 sq. ft.).

Witnessing the ceremony at the Singapore Airshow 2018 were Alan Smith, CEO, Hawker Pacific and, Ng Lang, CEO, JTC. Signatories included Louis Leong, v-p Hawker Pacific Asia and, Glory Wee, director, aerospace, marine and urban solutions, JTC.

Hawker Pacific commissioned its Singapore office in 2012 and currently has three hangars. Hawker Pacific Asia COO Doug Park  said the service center in Cairns is expanding, and some work is now being done in Bankstown, with future work to possibly be done in Singapore.

Aussies Visit

A 37-strong Team Defence Australia (TDA) delegation visited Hawker Pacific Asia’s facility in Seletar Aerospace Park Monday. The group, led by Maj. Gen. Andrew John Matthewson was briefed by Hawker Pacific Asia Pacific COO Doug Park on the capabilities and facilities of the Singapore site. TDA is a government initiative, led within a branch of the Australian Department of Defence.

“It is a fantastic opportunity to visit an Australian company that has a strong aviation background and making great success in the broader Asia-Pacific region. It gives good insights to these small and medium enterprises to see what’s possible here and in the region,” Matthewson told AIN.

Hawker Pacific (Chalet CD43) has been heavily involved in numerous performance based contracts with the Royal Australian Air Force and the Republic of Singapore Air Force. It has also worked on five of the Royal Malaysian Police force's Beechcraft King Air 350s, installing surveillance and sensors systems.

“Australia Defence Force in the last decade has been progressive toward performance based contracts. Only a good company can perform under those contracts conditions, and Hawker Pacific has demonstrated that it can operate in such a competitive environment very effectively,“ Matthewson said.

The company is also marketing its hybrid airworthiness support model for special mission aircraft, which entails; developing a concept of operations (if required); sourcing of platform and systems; conversion; and management of through-life maintenance of the civil aircraft. Hawker Pacific said, based on its expertise, it could achieve twice the average flying hours annually per aircraft compared to the traditional military model, translating to more missions with fewer aircraft.

Park told AIN that most of the company's expertise is with the King Air line, but it also conducts heavy maintenance on Bombardier Dash 8 and ATR turboprops at its base in Cairns. “Given the opportunity, we would be able to get into special mission development with a regional turboprop, if needed, or even work our way into the jets, as well,” he said. “But the [business jet] OEMs already have a reasonable amount of success in this field.”