Digital services, autonomous tech and sustainability: 3 key opportunities as aviation recovers

DIGITAL services, autonomous technologies and sustainability are three key opportunities for businesses as the aerospace sector recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, as long as they embrace technology and innovation, Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng said on Monday (Feb 14).

"The pandemic has underscored the importance of technology and innovation to help companies recover and emerge stronger, and to invest early in emerging areas to quickly capture opportunities," Dr Tan said in a keynote at the Singapore Aerospace Technology Leadership Forum in the lead-up to the Singapore Airshow 2022.

In the area of digital services, Dr Tan said that as aircraft engines and components become increasingly digitalised, there are opportunities to leverage the collected data to create new services related to optimisation of flight operations, workflow management and intelligent systems health monitoring.

This can help airlines and passengers save time and costs, he added.

Autonomous technologies can help companies enhance pilot decision making and ultimately enhance the reliability and safety of aircraft systems and flight operations, he said.

This trend also points to emerging market areas such as unmanned aerial systems and electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, which potentially represent lower barriers to entry compared to traditional commercial aerospace applications, he said.

In terms of sustainability, there is growing interest among companies to work together to reduce aviation's impact on the environment and one approach is to explore alternative energy systems such as electric propulsion, he said.

Meanwhile, several research institutes under the Agency for Science and Technology Research (A*Star) have been working on technologies that can potentially produce sustainable aviation fuel directly from carbon dioxide, he added.

Beyond the use of technology, manpower is the other key factor for the aerospace industry to meet future demand and capture new opportunities as they arise.

"The Singapore government will provide the needed support for workforce transformation through continuous upskilling and reskilling, positioning our workforce to seize future growth opportunities," said Dr Tan, who is also manpower minister.

He noted that Singapore's aerospace industry grew by 8.8 per cent in 2021 despite challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic as companies took the opportunity to transform their workforce and operations.

This follows a 26 per cent contraction in aerospace industry output in 2020 when air travel came to a near standstill. The same year, global aircraft production and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) spending both shrank by 40 per cent, Dr Tan noted.

Despite these challenges, Singapore's aerospace industry remains resilient and is seeing signs of recovery, he said, adding that the Republic continues to be Asia's leading aerospace hub, contributing to 10 per cent of the global MRO output.

He noted that eligible aerospace companies have been provided wage support until December 2021, and that the early intervention had helped to preserve the local core of skilled aerospace workers.

At the same time, the government worked with unions and companies to support firms' workforce and operations transformations through initiatives such as Workforce Singapore's Career Conversion Programme.

For example, ST Engineering has reskilled more than 200 aircraft maintenance technicians since August 2020 to take on more technically challenging passenger-to-freighter conversions to meet the increased demand for air freighters during the pandemic.

The government has also continued to build its aerospace talent pipeline and one avenue is the work-study diploma in aircraft maintenance engineering co-launched by the Institute of Technical Education and the Republic of Singapore Air Force in 2020, he said.

This programme allows aspiring students to obtain a diploma fully sponsored by the Ministry of Defence while serving full-time national service as air force technicians.