Overview
- ST Engineering officially opened the Changi Creek airframe MRO on Friday, Oct 9, and the site has been operating since May with plans to ramp up activity over the coming year.
- The S$170 million, 84,000 sq m facility has four widebody bays and immediately adds about 40% to the company’s widebody MRO capacity in Singapore, which could allow roughly 100 more widebody services a year.
- The site is actively trialing drones for top-of-aircraft visual checks, AI for defect detection, a camera-mounted robotic arm for underbody and landing-gear inspections, humanoid pickers, autonomous mobile and guided vehicles, and on‑demand 3D printing.
- ST Engineering says the technology mix cuts inspection times sharply — for example some gear checks fall from about four hours to 30 minutes and drone-based top inspections shrink to roughly half a day — and aims to free about 7,800 man-hours a year while lifting productivity about 25%.
- The project will create more than 500 jobs when fully ramped, pairs automation with in-house training and partner programmes, and is designed to roll new guided vehicles across Singapore sites from 2027 and scale proven solutions to global operations within one to two years.