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T Dirgantara Indonesia said it expects to win at least 30 percent of the national market for aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) after it was appointed an authorized provider of spare parts and MRO service for Russian-made Sukhoi Superjets, says the state aerospace company ’s chief.

Dirgantara president director Budi Santoso said in Jakarta on Monday that the appointment would allow the Bandung-based airplane manufacturer to handle MRO bids for all variants of the Russian-made aircraft.

“Currently, we have secured just 5 percent of the MRO market share by servicing 100 aircraft per year, but with the appointment we hope we can increase our market share to 30 percent,” he said.

Private airline company PT Kartika Airlines, which recently signed a US$951 million contract to buy 30 Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ-100) airplanes, will be Dirgantara’s first client for the maintenance of the Russian-made jets.

Budi said that Kartika had named Dirgantara to handle the MRO works for its new fleet of Superjets.

The SSJ-100 is a medium-haul passenger aircraft developed by Sukhoi in cooperation with US and European aviation corporations, such as Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.

Kartika new fleet of Superjets aircraft are slated for delivery between 2012 and 2015. “We have three years to prepare the workshop and hangar for MRO,” Budi said, adding that Dirgantara Indonesia had allocated more than $1 million to add more hangars in West Java.

Indonesian Aircraft Maintenance Shop Association (IAMSA) previously said that total aircraft maintenance expenditures will reach $750 million in 2010.

However, only 30 percent, or $250 million of total expenditures would be disbursed domestically while the remainder would go overseas due to facility shortages, he said.

Dirgantara Indonesia is one of several aerospace companies in Asia with core competencies in aircraft design and civilian and military regional commuter aircraft development and manufacturing.

The company, previously known as Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) and Industri Pesawat Terbang Nurtanio (IPTN), recorded sales of Rp 771.63 billion in 2009, returning profits of Rp 117.08 billion after losing Rp 84.34 billion in 2008. The company said this year`s sales will pass Rp 1.29 trillion, and that it has allocated Rp 225.11 billion for capital expenditures, up from Rp7.3 billion in 2009. The operating expenditures meanwhile were projected to increase to Rp 1.63 trillion from Rp 889.7 billion a year earlier.