By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad, Inquirer Business
Dornier Technology, a local aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services provider, recently bagged contracts for line maintenance with three Korean low-cost carriers amid the resurgence of the passenger traffic.
In a recent statement, Dornier said these contracts involved servicing Air Busan, Air Seoul and Jeju Air, which have all resumed flights to and from the Philippines.
Dornier chief operating officer Joseph Espiritu said that Korean airlines deemed the country as a crucial market because it’s a “popular leisure destination in close proximity to peninsula Korea.”
“There are also many Koreans living in the Philippines, so the airlines benefit from having a mix of leisure and visit friends and relatives traffic,” he added, noting that this was the first segment that saw recovery with the easing of border restrictions.
Espiritu said that Korean carriers were mostly using short-haul narrow-body aircraft for their flights to the Philippines.
Air Busan and Air Seoul operate flights from Seoul to Kalibo, a gateway to Boracay, via A321 aircraft. Jeju Air, meanwhile, accommodates flights from Seoul to Bohol using Boeing 737-800s.
“We serve multiple international and domestic airline customers. We have achieved cost savings through economies of scale and are able to pass on those savings to our customers, making us a very price competitive line maintenance organization,” Espiritu said.
Apart from this, the Dornier official said they were providing value-added services, including warehousing and logistics for aircraft spare parts.
Espiritu said that the improving domestic passenger traffic had been good for its operations as well.
“Filipinos like to travel and we have many good destinations to explore here in the Philippines. Now that there are no travel restrictions, people are taking the opportunity to travel again,” he said.
Dornier currently employs 200 workers but has plans to increase this to 250 by the end of year as it targets growth for its line and base maintenance business.
The company has nine line maintenance stations across Bohol, Caticlan, Cebu, Clark, Davao, Iloilo, Kalibo, Manila and Puerto Princesa. It plans to open its 10th station this year and increase them to 15 by 2025.
