Asian Sky Quarterly 2023 Q4

MRO JAPAN
MRO JAPAN
EXPANDS INTO
CORPORATE AVIATION
By Alud Davies
Japan has built one of the most impressive domestic airline networks in the world. Stretching 1,700 miles from
Painushima Ishigaki Airport in the south, right the way up to Wakkanai Airport in the north, Japanese airlines
regularly ply routes between futuristic megacities and beautifully peaceful islands.
It is also a relatively unique Market. Unlike the US or Europe where you’ll see single aisle and commuter
aircraft flying domestic services, Japan utilises many widebody aircraft on domestic routes. That’s not to say
that smaller aircraft don’t fly these routes, they do, but you’re just as likely to see a domestic flight operated by
an Airbus A350 or a Boeing 777 as you are an Airbus A320 or Boeing 737.
With so many aircraft flying to outposts far away from the main Tokyo
and Osaka bases, there was a clearly defined need for maintenance
facilities at some of the destinations that the airlines regularly fly into.
This was especially true for some of the domestic trunk routes, which
are regularly served from various different parts of the country.
So, in 2015, a new MRO company was formed with the aim of
providing MRO services in one of Japan’s busiest airports outside
of Osaka or Tokyo. Two years prior to that, the Okinawa Prefecture,
an island south of the mainland that’s closer to Taiwan than it is to
Japan, had set up a tender procedure for companies to potentially
set up an MRO facility at Naha Airport. Japan’s biggest commercial
operator, All Nippon Airways (ANA), made a bid to run the facilities,
and was subsequently named as the winner.
The new company, MRO Japan, would be owned 45% by ANA, with
51 | ASIAN SKY QUARTERLY - FOURTH QUARTER 2023