Region's airlines look to S'pore as industry takes off

SINGAPORE'S aviation expertise is increasingly sought after, as Asia-Pacific airports and airlines pull out all the stops to cash in on a booming industry.

Aviation players here have been taking on consulting jobs and growing their portfolio of investments overseas in areas such as airline management, cabin crew training, ground-handling and aircraft maintenance.

Mr Derek Sadubin, chief executive officer of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (Capa), a Sydney-based aviation think-tank, said 'a combination of track record, experience and the strength of the Singapore Inc model' makes Changi Airport, Singapore Airlines (SIA) and other local aviation players ideal choices as partners for airports and airlines on the expansion path.

Branding expert Gavin MacDonald, regional planning director for South-east Asia at Ogilvy & Mather, agreed, adding that Singapore-based companies generally have burnished reputations in management and efficiency.

That is why Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines, for example, is hoping SIA will take a stake in it and turn the loss-making carrier around.

SIA, too, is keen to get a foot in the door of the lucrative Chinese market and is reportedly eyeing a 24 per cent joint stake in the airline with Singapore investment company Temasek Holdings.

In ground-handling, Singapore Airport Terminal Services, which provides passenger and baggage check-in and other services, has an extensive footprint across Asia and the Middle East, with 17 investments in China, India, the Philippines, Indonesia and Hong Kong, among other locations.

Ditto for aircraft maintenance and repair companies SIA Engineering and Singapore Technologies Aerospace, which have set up operations across the globe.

And when it comes to service in the sky, the world-renowned Singapore Girl is an icon many carriers are keen to replicate.

India's Jet Airways, for example, has former SIA staff among its cabin crew trainers. Its founder Naresh Goyal, 57, said in an earlier interview: 'For me, SIA is the role model when it comes to service on board and on the ground. It is the best in the sky.'

Riding on such sentiments, at least two Singapore companies - Little Red Dot Academy and HiTac - offer cabin crew training for airlines in the region.

Asia is clearly where both firms see the action's focal point.

The International Air Transport Association (Iata), which represents more than 240 carriers worldwide, has projected Asia-Pacific international passenger traffic - powered by twin engines China and India - to grow by 5.7 per cent a year until 2010, outstripping the 4.8 per cent global figure.

More than three in 10 of the 1,800-plus new orders for Boeing and Airbus planes last year came from Asian carriers.

Singapore, whose aviation industry is more mature than those of its regional neighbours, is in a good position to cash in on the boom, aviation and branding experts said.

In a recent note to the industry, Capa went one step further to argue that the key to the future of Singapore's aviation businesses lies in taking wing overseas.

These companies 'know that their focus must shift off the island for growth opportunities', with a home market of only 4.3 million people, growth rates maturing and competition heating up for transfer traffic from other centres within and outside the region.