Honeywell focused on Asia/Pacific, sees potential in Indonesia

Honeywell Aerospace has signed contracts with five Asia/Pacific airlines: Solaseed Air, Jeju Air, Eastar Jet, China Eastern Airlines (MU) and Air China (CA).

Honeywell announced at the Singapore Airshow this week it has been selected by Jeju Air to provide a suite of avionics for its new Boeing 737-800s, and won a three-year maintenance contract from Eastar Jet that covers its fleet of 737-800s.

The company also renewed its strategic relationship with MU, under which it provides wheels and brakes for 737s as well as an avionics package and 131-9 APUs for 50 new Airbus A320s. It also extended an agreement with CA to provide avionics and wheels and brakes. The Solaseed Air contract covers APU support.

“We have a huge focus on the Asia/Pacific,” Honeywell Aerospace president-aerospace Asia Briand Greer told ATW. “From a macro-economic perspective, its growing quite a bit … there’s an overall GDP of 6.5%.”

The company moved its regional headquarters from Singapore to Shanghai, China, five years ago and has seen 19% annual growth. It is in the process of constructing two more buildings on site, and expects its 750-person workforce at the location to double in the next two years.

“We’re focused on China … we’ve won four systems on the COMAC C919, and we’re in the process of signing those master contracts and the joint ventures. We’re showcasing our ATM technology also, by helping China try and relieve some of that bottleneck that’s happening there.”

Indonesia is another focus area. “We think there is a huge potential for Indonesia to grow,” Greer said.

Although the company noted in its fourth-quarter and year-end results it expects a more challenging macro environment and moderate growth in the 2012 first half, the year as a whole is looking good.