Tangerang, March 6, 2020 - PT Garuda Maintenance Facility Aero Asia Tbk. (GMF) held a Media Gathering to provide an overview of the role of GMF in anticipating, managing, and preventing the spread of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in Indonesia. Located at Hangar 2, GMF AeroAsia, Tangerang on March 6, 2020, the event was attended by GMF's CEO, Tazar Marta Kurniawan and the Head of Environmental Control at the Soekarno Hatta Class 1 Port Health Office, Sutjipto who was also the main speaker at the media talk session. Airplanes disinfection as a special treatment for maintaining planes sanitation is the main topic that was delivered with previous simulation on how the process of planes coming from affected countries or carrying passengers who were suspect COVID-19.

By following the direction of the Ministry Health and Port Health Office Class I Soekarno Hatta, each operator and provider needs to pay more attention on planes that carrying passengers who suspected to Corona virus Disease (COVID-19). "Airport is a place where it is very highly risk on spreading virus through the arrival of passengers from various countries. So, we need rapid preventive action from various lines, one of them is by cooperating with GMF," said Sutjipto.

These special treatments can be realized by cleaning aircraft maintenance through disinfection methods. In normal conditions and no issue of the spread infectious diseases, the disinfection process is only done in the lavatory area. "The COVID-19 outbreak must be taken seriously, so we must carry out a thorough cleaning to make sure the plane returns completely sterile," added Tazar. In conditions where the virus potentially spread extensively, disinfection process should be carried out for all areas that come in direct contact with passengers, such as lavatory, seats, overhead compartment, and also galleys.

Starting from January 2020, GMF has done the disinfection process for 19 Garuda Indonesia and 13 Citilink airplanes. Other airplanes which come from affected countries and need to have airframe maintenance in GMF will also have the same treatment. 18 airplanes from non affiliation airlines come from 8 different countries. Tazar added “We understand that it is highly risk of contracting during the disinfection process. The officers are required to use standard personal protective equipment (PPE) while doing disinfectant process, at least wearing disposable hand gloves and masks for prevention methods and special clothing which should be worn when disinfecting the airplane that have had the infection cases. We also provide the disinfection process using Appled 3471 and Isoprophyl with 70% alcohol.”

Increasing demand on Airframe Maintenance

In the midst of increasing scale of COVID-19 Pandemic worldwide, it has affected in closuring several flight routes to and from China and other countries. GMF has the opportunity to penetrate the market. Some airlines maintenance was first trusted MRO in Singapore, Hong kong, but then it has to change into other alternatives. Thus, Indonesia is the main destination for unpostponable airplanes maintenance needs. One of them is from the Airframe Maintenance business line. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, GMF has received additional maintenance requests from various international airlines as a positive impact.

This also supports the realization of GMF’s mission to spur business growth starting from Airframe Maintenance for non-affiliated airplanes. Up to February 2020, GMF has received 35 orders of Aircraft Redelivery projects, which are more doubled orders compared to 2019. Non-affiliated market share, especially from international customers become GMF next target. “Our capabilities have been certified by FAA, EASA, and CASA at the international level. Now it is the time for dominating international market with an extra mission on bringing our country reputation stronger in Asia-Pacific market within the global economic conditions” said Tazar.

For further information, please contact:
PT GMF AeroAsia Tbk.
VP Corporate Secretary & Legal
A. Maryati
Phone: +62215508717
Email: maryati@gmf-aeroasia.co.id
corporatecommunication@gmf-aeroasia.co.id