FL Technics Ponders Asia-Pacific Expansion

FL Technics Indonesia is looking to more than double its MRO footprint in Jakarta by adding another six-bay hangar, two painting bays, plus an engine shop and a wheels and brakes shop.

FL Technics Indonesia’s current facility is 16,000 m2 (approximately 172,000 ft.2) and the company is looking to expand to as much as 45,000 m2 through an approximately €50 million ($58 million) investment. FL Technics hopes to open the new facilities in late 2026.

“It’s a significant investment,” FL Technics Indonesia CEO Martynas Grigas tells Aviation Week Network. “Combined with our existing facilities, we will probably be the biggest in Southeast Asia for narrowbody MRO. With our Bali facility, it will be for sure the biggest.”

The planned expansion comes in response to robust demand. The Southeast Asia region is home to thousands of aircraft, with a strong aircraft delivery pipeline over the next five years. Grigas says airlines from the Middle East, India and across Asia are already requesting maintenance visits for 10 days at a time, rather than 1-3 days, because they have substantial fleets.

“There will be huge demand. We can feel already that now,” Grigas says. “We [are] already fully booked. What’s stopping our growth is a lack of space, so that’s why it’s natural to expand.”

If the expansion goes ahead, FL Technics Indonesia will add three new core capabilities: top-case engine maintenance, wheels and brakes, and painting. FL Technics already offers top case engine maintenance at its Lithuanian facilities, and Grigas says this style of quick turnaround, light-fix engine hospital work is a “much-needed” service in Southeast Asia.

“There are a lot of players around with wheels and brakes shops, but all of them are dedicated to their own airlines, like AirAsia or Garuda. There are not many for the other airlines,” he says. “And we’re bringing painting facilities, which are also very in-demand.

There are very few painting facilities in Southeast Asia.”

FL Technics Indonesia has no plans to enter the engine overhaul or widebody markets. “Never say never, but not now, for sure. That’s a totally different business,” he says. “Our strength and focus is in narrowbody airframes and other shops.”

The Jakarta facility opened in December 2016. It can accommodate 8-10 narrowbodies simultaneously, covering all Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 variants, including Neos and MAXs. FL Technics Indonesia also has a series of shops, including batteries, sheet metal work and non-destructive testing.

The company opened a new high-tech hangar in Bali in November 2024, which has capacity for eight aircraft. “It’s a totally new, high-end facility,” Grigas says. “There is no other facility like that in Southeast Asia.”

Together, the Jakarta and Bali facilities employ around 900 staff.

The Jakarta expansion will add another 400 jobs, growing the site’s existing 500-strong workforce. FL Technics’ MRO activities in Jakarta and Bali are certified by various authorities, including Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and the U.S. Grigas says the company is working toward European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification, which it hopes to get by the end of 2025 or in early 2026.

Beyond this, FL Technics has been exploring the idea of creating additional MROs in Thailand, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries. Further sites in Indonesia—which has 37 airports—are also under consideration, including sites to the north of the country, which are closer to Thailand and the Philippines. “So far, we see that Indonesia is one of the best markets to develop our MRO business,” Grigas says.

“To develop an MRO, there are three main components. One is the box—the facility or hangar itself—which is the easy part,” Grigas says. “The more difficult part is logistics. The logistics network should be very well developed to get daily parts. And third, the most important component is people. If we don’t have engineers at that airport, there is no business. But Indonesia is a very good area for that. They produce a lot of engineers. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of engineers available in the market.”

Thailand is moving from FAA- to EASA-style regulations, and Grigas believes the new U-Tapao International Airport has potential to be a good MRO center. “Still, there is a lot of work to do for Thailand to develop MROs. The Philippines is another option, but it is already dense with MRO companies,” he says.

If any of these projects goes ahead, it would be a large facility. “In our business, we need scale,” Grigas says, noting that Jakarta has grown from a small project into a major facility. While Grigas would love to expand further in Bali, its island location is a natural size-limiter.

FL Technics is part of Avia Solutions Group, which has dozens of air operators’ certificates around the world. While the bulk of FL Technics’ work is for third-party airlines, it also performs MRO for the group’s expanding portfolio of wet lease airlines, including BBN Airlines Indonesia and Thai SmartLynx.