Though headquartered in France, maintenance and modification specialist Sabena Technics (Chalet E09) has something of a home-court advantage at the Singapore Airshow by way of its local joint venture, Singapore Component Solutions (SCS). Sabena founded the company in 2016, and Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance bought a stake in 2018.

Sabena is highlighting at the Changi Exhibition Centre its local connection and the capabilities SCS offers regional commercial operators.

Located in Seletar Aerospace Park’s aeronautics cluster, SCS has more than tripled its footprint since opening, now operating a 4,500-sq-m/48,400-sq-ft facility with 60 employees. With Part 145 authorizations from 10 agencies in Europe, the U.S., and Asia-Pacific, SCS boasts more than 200 product families of avionics, mechanical, hydraulic, and pneumatic components it developed for Airbus A320/330, ATR, and Fokker 100 aircraft. SCS expects to obtain AS9110 certification (the standard for repair stations) from China this year.

More than 3,500 components currently come out of the workshop annually, and plans call for continued growth, “notably for the hot air pneumatic and hydraulic product families,” according to the company. SCS CEO Thibaut Campion attributes its rapid expansion of services to the company’s teams’ “hunger to succeed.” 

Sabena Technics itself supports a total of 150 commercial aircraft for 30 airlines and offers modification expertise as well as an extensive portfolio of business aviation expertise. The company arrives at the show on the heels of signing a cooperation agreement with Airbus Corporate Jets (Chalet CD 23-35) to outfit the latter’s executive airliners with optional laser-based anti-missile systems. These directional infrared countermeasure (DIRCM) self-protection systems, available from several third-party manufacturers, use infrared lasers to protect aircraft from man-portable air defense systems, today’s most widespread missile threat, according to the French airframer. Sabena will act as the system integrator for the installations, which will be performed at Airbus-authorized completion facilities.

Daniel Soltani, Sabena Technics’ senior v-p of sales and business development, cited the company’s proven “ability to install and certificate these systems with airworthiness authorities, such as EASA and the FAA,” for its selection by Airbus.