PT Garuda Maintenance Facility (GMF) Aero Asia, a subsidiary of flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, booked contracts worth US$2.4 billion in the 2018 Singapore Airshow at Changi Exhibition Center from Feb. 6 to 11.

“The contracts [mostly] reaffirmed a number of cooperation agreements with our strategic partners to expand our businesses,” said GMF president director Iwan Joeniarto on Tuesday as reported by kompas.com.

Iwan said $1.7 billion worth of contracts came from existing agreements on plane maintenance, while the other $700 billion worth were new contracts.

In addition to the $2.4 billion worth of contracts, GMF also signed a cooperation agreement to expand its businesses to the Middle East and Australia, said Iwan, adding that Australia and countries in the Middle East have great market potential.

“With the partnerships, we hope that we will share the market for plane maintenance [there],” he said, adding that to support its business expansion, the company would also cooperate with educational facilities to train skilled technicians who would be ready for employment after they completed their study.

Among the educational facilities are state-owned polytechnics in Medan, Malang, Palembang and Batam. (bbn)