Aircraft maintenance in Hainan Free Trade Port has become a hot commodity
HNA Aviation Technik Co., Ltd. has completed over 2,400 aircraft maintenance tasks, serving nearly 50 airlines and aircraft leasing companies both domestically and internationally
Aircraft maintenance in Hainan Free Trade Port has become a hot commodity
Recently, staff members at the one-stop aircraft maintenance industrial base in Hainan Free Trade Port were repairing a passenger aircraft. Photographed by Wang Chenglong, a reporter from Hainan Daily's full-media team. Reported by Shao Changchun, a reporter from Hainan Daily's full-media team, and correspondents Xu Jiajing and Zhang Jian. Recently, a Boeing 787 aircraft from Royal Jordanian Airlines landed smoothly at Haikou Meilan International Airport and will undergo special modification and complete aircraft painting services provided by HNA Aviation Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as HNA Aviation Technik).
This marks the first aircraft maintenance business from Jordan to be undertaken by Hainan Free Trade Port. At the critical juncture when the entire island of the Free Trade Port is entering the countdown for its sealed operation, the aviation maintenance industry in the Free Trade Port has achieved a new breakthrough.
Since the one-stop aircraft maintenance industrial base in Hainan Free Trade Port was put into operation in 2022, up to now, it has completed over 2,400 aircraft maintenance tasks, over 280 complete aircraft painting tasks, and 61,000 aviation parts maintenance tasks, including over 100 inbound aircraft maintenance and painting tasks. The service covers nearly 50 airlines and aircraft leasing companies both domestically and internationally. Hainan has almost built the aircraft maintenance industry from scratch, making it bigger and stronger, attracting fans from global airlines, drawing more and more repeat customers, and becoming a vivid case of investment attractiveness and emerging industry development in Hainan Free Trade Port.
The business sector is extensively involved in aircraft maintenance, achieving "one-stop solution". "This is a borescope, and its working principle is like performing a 'gastrointestinal endoscopy' on an engine. It can inspect minor internal engine damage more precisely and visually." Inside the maintenance hangar of the one-stop aircraft maintenance industrial base in Hainan Free Trade Port, Lin Sairong, a non-destructive testing engineer from HNA Aviation Technik Co., Ltd.'s Da Xin Hua Fei Wei Haikou Base, is conducting an engine inspection.
Around him, more than 10 aircraft filled the huge hangar, and there were even more aircraft "waiting in line" on the apron outside, ready to be stored for maintenance.
"This one is from Jordan, this one is from Vietnam, this one is from Qatar, and the one over there is from Hong Kong, China. More and more overseas airlines are choosing to repair their planes in Hainan!" said Yang Wenbo, Deputy Director of the Daxinhua Feiwei Airport Maintenance Base under HNA Aviation Technik Co., Ltd.
He explained that the one-stop aircraft maintenance industrial base is like an "4S shop" for aircraft. "We have corresponding business segments for all the maintenance, repair, and beauty services that a car 4S shop can provide. For example, aircraft body scheduled maintenance and repair is equivalent to regular deep maintenance and repair for cars, accessory repair is similar to car parts maintenance, and complete aircraft painting is like car body color change and wrapping." Of course, the scope and technical complexity of aircraft maintenance services in the base are much higher than those of car maintenance. For example, the Boeing 787 of Royal Jordanian Airlines will undergo air-ground interconnection system installation and complete aircraft painting this time.
"The ground-to-air interconnection system is a high-speed system for real-time data exchange between aircraft operations and the ground operation center," explained Li Li, the project manager of the Daxinhua Feiwei Airport Maintenance Base under HNA Technology. Installing this system poses certain challenges. It requires precise planning of equipment installation locations without affecting the structural integrity and safety of the aircraft fuselage. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that the newly added system perfectly fits with the aircraft's existing avionics system, and to lay out the lines without any deviation in a limited space.
"The painting of an entire aircraft is much more complex than the color change and wrapping of a car," said Li Meng, the manager of HNA Sistis Painting and Maintenance Center, a subsidiary of HNA Technology. "The surface area of an aircraft is large, and different aircraft have different specifications. The entire construction process needs to be carried out according to standards, with extremely high requirements for the weight, uniformity, and weather resistance of the paint. Each layer of paint also has strict standards.".
As a comprehensive aviation maintenance service enterprise under the new HNA Aviation Group, specializing in aircraft and its accessory maintenance, fleet technical management, modification design, aviation maintenance training, aircraft painting, and aviation material sales, HNA Aviation Technology Co., Ltd. became one of the first enterprises to settle in the one-stop aircraft maintenance industrial base of Hainan Free Trade Port in 2022, serving as a backbone force in the development of Hainan's aircraft maintenance industry.
As of now, the one-stop base has established a comprehensive engineering maintenance service capability encompassing various business formats such as aircraft body overhaul, parts maintenance, and complete aircraft painting. Aircraft coming to Hainan for maintenance can experience the convenience of "one-stop service".
The combination of diverse advantages is attracting more and more "repeat customers." Why is aircraft maintenance in Hainan favored by foreign airlines? In Yang Wenbo's view, this is primarily due to the support of preferential policies in Hainan Free Trade Port. Overseas aircraft entering the port for maintenance can enjoy preferential policies such as exemption from deposit, temporary entry for maintenance with domestic sales allowed, and bonded maintenance of aviation materials, which saves customers maintenance costs and time. At the same time, for overseas aircraft entering the port for scheduled maintenance, customers can also enjoy bonded policies for their own aviation materials.
Reporters from Hainan Daily's full-media network learned from the one-stop aircraft maintenance industrial base that since its establishment in 2022, HNA Technology has saved over 11 million yuan in expenses, thanks to the policy support of "zero tariff" for the import of equipment produced by enterprises in the Free Trade Port for their own use.
Meanwhile, airlines previously had to pay a certain amount of deposit for aircraft maintenance upon entry into the country. Now, with this fee being waived, the occupation of corporate funds has been reduced. These preferential policies of the Free Trade Port, when combined, can save airlines 10% to 15% of maintenance costs, which is conducive to conducting more overseas business.
With the increasing number of inbound maintenance services, to ensure the rapid customs clearance of aircraft undergoing maintenance, Haikou Meilan Airport Customs timely understands the maintenance plans and needs of enterprises within the zone, establishes a "green channel" for aircraft, engines, and aviation materials, and arranges specially-assigned personnel to conduct centralized document review and inspection, providing 24-hour all-weather support services.
In addition to policy advantages, Hainan also boasts unique geographical advantages. Its air routes are close enough to "face ASEAN, develop with Japan and South Korea, and take into account South Asia", and far enough to "reach Europe, the Middle East, and Africa", attracting visitors from all over the world and presenting great market opportunities.
Relying on the platform of the vast fleet of HNA Aviation Group, HNA Aviation Technik Co., Ltd. has also accumulated rich experience in civil aviation aircraft maintenance and engineering management. Currently, it has obtained maintenance licenses from multiple countries and regions such as the United States FAA and European EASA. These qualifications are international passports in themselves, ensuring that each maintenance operation meets globally unified standards.
The combination of policy advantages of the Free Trade Port and high-quality maintenance has made the one-stop aircraft maintenance industrial base in Hainan Free Trade Port a "hot potato" in the eyes of overseas airlines, with more and more overseas airlines becoming repeat customers. Taking Vietnam as an example, since completing the first Vietnamese inbound aircraft maintenance business in March 2024, the one-stop aircraft maintenance industrial base in Hainan Free Trade Port has undertaken nearly 19 Vietnamese inbound aircraft maintenance businesses. According to the plan, Vietnam's VietJet Air will also have about 5 aircraft coming to Hainan for maintenance this year.
A customer representative from Vietnam's VietJet Air stated that Hainan Free Trade Port offers significant policy incentives, with simplified customs clearance procedures, fast supply of zero-tariff spare parts, and internationally leading maintenance qualifications and efficiency. The hangar facilities are complete, the supporting services are perfect, the team responds promptly, and the transportation to and from is convenient. "The comprehensive cost and experience are very competitive, making it naturally our preferred choice for long-term cooperation."
Seizing development opportunities and expanding into larger overseas markets, Hainan Free Trade Port is about to commence operations. According to statistics from the Haikou Exit-Entry Frontier Inspection Station, as of October 15 this year, the number of exit-entry personnel in Hainan has exceeded 2 million, marking a year-on-year increase of 22.4%; the total number of exit-entry transportation vehicles stands at 17,000, also marking a year-on-year increase of 16%.
"To get rich, you need to build roads first. The opening of air traffic rights and the construction of an international aviation hub are like 'roads being built' for us," said Yang Wenbo. More international flights landing in Hainan means an increase in potential maintenance demand. It's convenient for planes to fly over and take care of maintenance at the same time, saving time and money.
Meanwhile, Hainan's development as an international aviation hub will also attract more enterprises in the aviation industry chain, such as aviation material suppliers and leasing companies, to settle down, further improving supporting services and forming a virtuous cycle.
In Yang Wenbo's view, aircraft maintenance is inherently a high-tech and high-value-added industry. The overhaul of each aircraft involves thousands of technical aspects, which can drive the development of related fields such as composite materials, precision instruments, and digital management, thereby enhancing the overall quality of Hainan's service industry. At the same time, this industry requires a large number of high-end talents and international cooperation, which can force local service industries to align with international standards, management, and innovation. This will extend from traditional tourism and trade to high-end aviation services, making Hainan's service industry structure more optimized and competitive.
To meet the growing demand for maintenance services, HNA Aviation Technik Co., Ltd. has recently established a new composite material processing center within its one-stop aircraft maintenance industrial base. This move aims to fill the gap in the field of aircraft composite material maintenance in Hainan and enhance the one-stop aviation maintenance service capabilities of Hainan Free Trade Port.
"Composite materials are widely used in civil aircraft components, including radar covers, engine thrust reversers, air intakes, fan cowls, tailpipes, and flight control components. All composite materials required for maintenance can be locally produced in Hainan in the future," said Su Yuqiang, the head of the center.
In the future, HNA Aviation Technik Co., Ltd. will continue to take Hainan as its core development region, increase investment in capacity building, focus on enhancing capabilities such as converting passenger aircraft into cargo aircraft, and basically achieve full coverage of aircraft maintenance products. At the same time, it will leverage the policy dividends and development opportunities of Hainan Free Trade Port to actively expand overseas maintenance business in Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, the Middle East, and other regions, promoting the steady development of the aviation maintenance industry in Hainan Free Trade Port.
(Report from Haikou, October 20)