Dornier Technology seeks new markets for expansion

In growing the Philippine maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) market, Dornier Technology is looking internally and outside the country to service the needs of the Asian regional market, according to CEO Nickos Gitsis.

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“We've been committed to Clark, although there’s other possibilities also with the developments of other airports. There are other airports that have asked us to set up in their areas, such as Cebu in Mactan. That's a possibility also to expand into that area eventually,” Gitsis said.

Gitsis indicated that “could be part of a future option because there is quite some activity now out of Cebu.” “But again, Clark has a developed import/export hub. To do MRO, you need a very robust and well-supported logistics infrastructure, which Clark has. They have the import and export in Clark, the special incentives and customs support to be able to service planes. In other countries they give very special incentives to MROs to do the required import and export of aircraft parts, with special duty like what Clark has.”

The Philippines, which is located in Southeast Asia, is also close to Northeast Asia like Japan, Korea, Taiwan and even China.

lasked him if he sees any potential to develop their business to service Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese and even Chinese aircraft as an alternative to flying further to the Middle East or Europe, which can be an eightto nine-hour trip, as opposed to the Philippines which is just a fourto five-hour distance.