Garuda Indonesia Inaugurates World's Biggest Narrow Body Hangar

Garuda Maintenance Facilities (GMF) AeroAsia, a subsidiary of Garuda Indonesia, has completed the construction of Hangar 4 which, with a maintenance capacity of up to 16 narrow body aircraft in a parallel formation including one bay for aircraft painting, is the world's biggest narrow body aircraft hangar.

Hangar 4 was built on a 66.940 m2 area with 64.000m2 available for production area and 17.600 m2 allocated for office space.

GMF's Hangar 4 utilization will be completed in phases and is expected to reach its full capacity (16 slots operationalized) in 2018.

By 2016, GMF has predicted it will have completed 209 maintenance projects, which will then increase by the next year to 250 maintenance projects, with 313 maintenance projects expected by 2018.

With the addition of the maintenance capacity of aircraft, it is then projected that the amount of man power involved in aircraft maintenance work plan in 2016 will amount to 121 people, in 2017 as many as 179 and by 2018 as many as 238 personnel.

President and CEO of Garuda Indonesia, M. Arif Wibowo, said, "By the year 2020, the Garuda Indonesia Group will eventually operate a total of 241 aircraft. Also, Hangar 4 is a strategic initiative of GMF AeroAsia in seizing a large portion of the narrow-body aircraft maintenance market in Asia Pacific, which is forecast to become market leader in the Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) business, and furthermore, becoming a market leader for the largest aircraft maintenance business over the next five years."

Hangar 4 is designed as a butterfly - consisting of two wings, with an office area and workshop in middle.

"The unique design of Hangar 4 is evidenced by the implementation of an eco friendly concept. This ecofriendly building concept is GMF's responsibility to the earth. This concept is contained in the special construction of the Hangar, such as skylights on the roof and Panasap Glass on the walls of the hangar to help optimize natural sunlight, the second floor's (office), has a curtain wall with laminated glass to maximize light circulation for a modern and transparent look, aluminum ceilings minimize air turbulence, while the roof has been designed to allow water to drain easily and therefore reduce the impact on the facade. Hangar 4 uses Metal Halide lamps to create white light and low electricity consumption," said President & CEO of GMF AeroAsia, Richard Budihadianto.

GMF's Hangar 4 utilization will be completed in phases and will reach its full capacity in 2018.

Currently, GMF has 167 projects for narrow body aircraft and it is estimated this will increase from 167 to 313 projects or an increase of 87 percent by 2018. The increase in projected revenues from the GMF's Hangar 4 is set at US$ 86 million or 150% of the existing income.

"Currently, the income of the capacity of the existing narrow body hangar is equal to US$ 57 million, so with this new hangar, in 2018, GMF's revenue is projected to rise to US$ 143 million," Richard said.