I was honored to be the keynote international speaker during the first Aviation MRO Indonesia event in Jakarta. Many questioned spending forty hours in transit to attend a two-day event in an underdeveloped part of the planet, but this association never questions the importance of being recognized in all parts of the globe. Invited to represent ARSA’s regulatory and legislative expertise, I had the pleasure of spending exclusive time with the Director General of the Indonesian Civil Aviation Authority and joined a distinguished list of speakers including Dr. Norbert Lohl, Certification Director for the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

The country has a total of seventy repair stations; a quarter of these belong to the Indonesian Aviation Maintenance Shop Association (IAMSA), the champion of the conference. Five companies hold EASA-approved maintenance organization certificates, and three have repair station certificates from the Federal Aviation Administration. The companies perform approximately thirty percent of the Indonesian airline fleet’s maintenance, meaning the air carriers contract seventy percent of their maintenance to companies outside the country. The in-country shops are determined to increase their share to at least sixty percent, which requires rapid but sustainable growth. The industry faces similar challenges to all “blue-collar” businesses worldwide—reasonable access to finances and obtaining technically competent personnel.

The island nation has all the earmarks of being aviation-centric. Indonesia’s economy has experienced stable growth, and its island locations are convenient to Singapore and other eastern nations. Garuda, one of its air carriers, was progressive in requesting a two-person cockpit design from Airbus when it purchased its first fleet and continues to improve its world standing.

As a representative of the regulatory compliance worldwide, it was well worth the time and energy to spend a week looking into tomorrow.