Embraer Asia-Pacific on Thursday announced its appointment of SIA Engineering Philippines (SIAEP) as the region’s first E-Jet service center for international clients. Located in Clark in the Philippines, the SIAEP service center will provide base maintenance for the E170, E175, E190 and E195 narrowbodies.

Although Embraer already maintains service centers in Jinan and Tianjin, China, those facilities cater purely to Chinese operators seeking Civil Aviation Administration of China certificates. “Most operators outside China would want to have EASA certification, so the airlines have to think carefully what suits them,” Augustine Tai, the Asia-Pacific director for Embraer’s new support and services division, told AIN. SIAEP maintains 13 airworthiness approvals, including FAA and EASA certificates.

“Embraer’s E-Jets have a reliability rate of 99.6 percent and we would like a good MRO operator with reputation to maintain the standard,” Tai added.

Most operators in region have conducted maintenance in-house or have flown to Embraer service centers in Poland, Portugal and the U.S. The Clark facility, located within four hours from most E-Jet operators in Asia, will save Asian operators at least four days of flying time.

Embraer had trained the first batch of SIAEP personnel in Brazil and the company expects to receive its first E-Jet next month. “Embraer will be with us for the first few aircraft for maintenance and engineering support and from there we will assess when we will go on our own,” said SIAEP general manager Abu Bakar bin Kunji Mohamed.

A joint venture between Cebu Pacific and SIA Engineering Company, SIAEP is now looking to open a fourth hangar capable of housing an A380 by late next year. The company also plan to gain Airbus A330 EASA certification and Boeing 737NG certification by this year’s third quarter.  

“This partnership will show Embraer’s commitment to the region and eventually reflect with more orders in the region,” said Embraer Asia-Pacific managing director Ricardo Pesce. Embraer now counts more than 150 E-Jets in service in the region. Japan’s Fuji Dream Airlines announced an order for three E175s and an option for three more at this month’s Paris Air Show.