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ata from the Indonesian Aircraft Maintenance Shop Association (IAMSA) reveals that the country'€™s airlines spent almost US$1 billion annually for the past two years on aircraft repair and maintenance works.

In addition, with plans by many carriers to meet the demands of increasing air travel by expanding their operations, the figure is projected to hit $2 billion each year from 2015.

However, the current capacity of domestic maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) services could only absorb a maximum 30 percent of the total works each year today, leaving the lion'€™s share up for grabs by foreign MRO firms, such as those in Singapore and Malaysia.

This condition has pushed MRO players such as GMFAeroAsia (GMF), state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) and Merpati Maintenance Facility (MMF) to take measures to capitalise on the gap in the market.

Richard Budihadianto, president director of GMF, a subsidiary of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, said that the company had set up new hangars and recruited new engineers.

'€œThe construction of our fourth hangar in Cengkareng will be finished in December [2013] and this will help us to maintain and repair more planes,'€ Richard told The Jakarta Post, adding that the firm spent $50 million on the construction of Hangar 4, which was built on a 64,000-square-meter plot of land near Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, would focus on the heavy maintenance of narrow body planes, like the Boeing B737 family.

After Hangar 4 is operational, the firm plans to pump in up to $100 million to its Batam MRO facility.

Separately, PTDI spokesman Sonny Saleh Ibrahim said that its aircraft service division was awaiting certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in order to help the firm to capture the jet market.

'€œWe aim to tap into the Airbus maintenance market because of the popularity of this plane. We are also working with our partner Airbus Military to train our engineers,'€ Sonny said.

The country'€™s largest domestic carrier Lion Air signed a $24 billion deal for 234 Airbus craft, which will be delivered in phases from 2014 to 2027.

Sonny also said that the firm planned to spin off its aircraft service division next year to better develop its MRO business and make it more profitable.

In addition, MMF managing director Ony Suryowibowo said that even though its parent company Merpati Nusantara Airlines (Merpati) had huge debts and had recently undergone restructuring, MMF remained committed to serve the aircraft maintenance market.

'€œWe want to focus on small and medium aircraft because the demand for this market is huge,'€ he said.