Singapore Airshow News: Airshow Ups Game in Face of Competition

by Chris Pocock – February 15, 2016

Since its first edition in 2008, the Singapore Airshow has “cemented its position as Asia’s largest airshow,” reports Leck Chet Lam, managing director of show organizer Experia Events. This year’s show features more than 1,000 companies from 50 countries, including the top 65 global aerospace players. Twenty national pavilions and groups are participating, including first-time pavilions for Indonesia and the Philippines. Experia says the show is the “strategic platform of choice for key industry players.”

With increasing competition from shows in neighboring countries, the organizers are taking a leaf from the Singapore government’s overall economic strategy–by going upmarket and adding value. An impressive conference program on the eve of the show is being backed up by new business forums here at the event.

In order to keep the Singapore airshow relevant to today’s and tomorrow’s marketplace, the airshow is focusing on three areas: tapping into emerging opportunities, engaging in emerging dialogs, and showcasing emerging technology.

Emerging opportunities are addressed in four business forums scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, of which three are new. France is the featured country of this year’s show, and a France-Singapore forum is being held, co-chaired by GIFAS and Singapore Technologies Aerospace and featuring 20 panelists and moderators from the two countries.

Just prior to the show, the French ambassador to Singapore, His Excellence Benjamin Dubertret, told reporters that 60 French companies are participating, while the Dassault Rafale is taking part in the aerial display. The Airbus A350XWB is another flying exhibit, the new airliner having already secured orders from 13 ASEAN airlines.

Other forums include one on Emerging Technologies, which will focus on additive manufacturing and big data analytics. The forum on Training and Simulation is particularly dear to Leck Chet Lam’s heart. The airshow boss has an aerospace engineering background, and said that the Asia-Pacific region needs many more individuals to take up this career. The fourth of these two-hour forums will discuss Asia Business, with contributions from Ameco Beijing; Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation, SR Technics and GMF AeroAsia of Indonesia.

Leck Chet Lam describes the show as a “platform for thought leadership,” evidenced by the conferences that took place before the show. The show also features various themed zones, which to some extent mirror and complement the business forums. The existing Training and Simulation Zone expands on previous years, while a new Aerospace Emerging Technology Zone is new for this year.

Singapore Growth
Singapore holds a leading place in the regional aerospace sector, and the airshow reflects that. Tan Kong Hwee, director of transport engineering for the Economic Development Board, outlined the nation’s already impressive position in the sector, with an annual growth of more than 8 percent over the past decade.

Singapore now boasts 130 aerospace companies with an $8.3 billion output. The nation has captured around 10 percent of the global MRO market share, and each year a number of important new facilities are opening. Pratt & Whitney, for instance, is opening a blade and disk manufacturing facility, and Rolls-Royce is already assembling Trent 700 engines at Seletar.
With the ASEAN region forecast to become the world’s fourth largest economy by 2050, air travel in the region continues to grow at a rapid pace, requiring greater levels of in-region aftermarket support. Also, major OEMs are looking to the region, and Singapore itself, to respond to increasing demands on the supply chain.

Singapore’s government has outlined a plan to become a globally recognized aerospace nation, with both a competent manufacturing and aftermarket presence by leading OEMs, and a range of home-grown enterprises able to service major aerospace programs. To that end, the government has committed major investment to both research and development programs, and into aerospace academic institutions. These initiatives are evident in a number of exhibits at the show.

Display Highlights
Two military types are making their first appearance here in Singapore–an Airbus A400M airlifter from the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) and a pair of Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor stealth fighters from the U.S. Air Force. Also making show debuts are two helicopters: the Airbus H145 and Bell’s developmental 505, in mockup form. Finmeccanica has brought Project Zero, its experimental tilt-rotor, for static display.

The hour-long flying display will be dominated by heavy military metal, with quieter relief provided only by the Airbus A350 XWB. There will be a coordinated display by an AH-64 Apache and F-15SG Strike Eagle of the RSAF; the French Air Force Rafale combat jet; a U.S. Air Force F-16C fighter; a C-17 airlifter; and a Su-30MKM fighter from the RMAF, the latter demonstrating a remarkable series of thrust-vectoring maneuvers.

For many the highlight will likely be the dynamic Black Eagles aerobatic team of the Republic of Korea Air Force, making a welcome return to the Singapore airshow with an expanded routine in their eight T-50 supersonic jet trainers.

Looking forward to the next Singapore airshow, and amid some speculation as to where the next show will be held (due to the work that is already underway on the expansion of Changi Airport), Leck Chet Lam reassured visitors that “we’ll still be here in 2018”.