Dornier Technology Secures FAA Certification

14 November 2025

Philippines-based Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) company Dornier Technology has secured FAA certification for heavy maintenance work on the Airbus A320 family aircraft, covering both A320neos and A320ceos. 

The certification brings a new milestone for the 17-year-old company, which currently holds certifications from regulators in  the Philippines, Indonesia and South Korea. 

“This allows us to bid for more work not just from the local carriers, but also in the Southeast Asian region in particular, because were close enough that it still makes sense for them to bring over.” Dornier’s Chief Executive Officer Nick Gitsis said.

According to Gitsis, airframe maintenance makes up about 65% of the company’s work, with line maintenance making up the remaining 35%. 

Heavy maintenance checks are done at its main MRO facility at Clark airport in Pampanga while it also operates line maintenance capabilities at airports in Cebu, Davao and Manila. 

Line maintenance refers to the routine maintenance tasks performed on aircraft between flights. It typically occurs at the line station, which is an operational location where aircraft arrive and depart. Line maintenance activities are aimed at promptly resolving minor issues, conducting inspections, and ensuring that the aircraft is safe and airworthy for its next flight. 

These tasks include visual inspections, fluid replenishment, tire changes, minor repairs, and troubleshooting.

Line maintenance is “an important stream of revenue” for Dornier, but “the core of our business” is in base maintenance, and will be an area of long-term growth, says Gitsis. 

With FAA certification the company is looking to expand into end-of-lease checks and is “talking to” several lessors, and “planning some work in the near future”. 

MROs taking on end-of-lease checks are required to have FAA and/or EASA certification should they be return to service in the future. 

Dornier Secures Korean LCC Contracts

 25 August 2022

Clark-based maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) firm has secured contracts from three  low-cost carriers (LCC) of South Korea that have resumed services to the Philippines, the company disclosed recently.

Dornier Technologies Philippines announced that they were awarded contracts for line maintenance from three Korean low-cost carriers that have resumed services to the Philippines.

The South Korean LCCs were Air Busan, Air Seoul and Jeju Air.

Air Busan and Air Seoul are operating from Seoul Incheon to Kalibo using Airbus A320s and A321s aircraft, while Jeju Air is operating from Seoul Incheon to Bohol’s Panglao International Airport using Boeing 737-800s.

Dornier Technology Chief Operating Officer Joseph Espiritu says the Philippine market is very strong for South Korean carriers, because it is a popular leisure destination in close proximity to peninsula South Korea. 

Korea’s close proximity to the Philippines means South Korean carriers are mostly serving the Philippines using short-haul narrowbody aircraft such as A320s and 737s, says Espiritu.

"There are also many Koreans living in the Philippines, so the airlines benefit from having a mix of leisure and visit friends and relatives (VFR) traffic,"Espiritu said. 

"VFR traffic was the first segment to recover from the pandemic", he adds.

Espiritu says Dornier Technology is popular with foreign carriers because it is the Philippines’ largest independent MRO organisation. 

“We serve multiple international and domestic airline customers. We have achieved cost savings through ‘economies of scale’ and are able to pass on those savings to our customers, making us a very price competitive line maintenance organisation,” said Espiritu. 

“Dornier Technology has a depth and breadth of experience, which means we can serve airlines that operate different aircraft types. We can also provide value-added services, such as warehousing and logistics for aircraft spare parts.”

Dornier Technology has nearly 200 employees and plans to increase its workforce to 250 by year-end to meet the growth of its line and base maintenance business. 

The company does airframe heavy maintenance, otherwise known as base maintenance, at Clark International Airport outside Manila. It has nine line maintenance stations: Bohol, Caticlan, Cebu, Clark, Davao, Iloilo, Kalibo, Manila and Puerto Princesa.

Dornier Technology Appoints New CEO

25 March 2022

Featured photo from Dornier Technology shows Nikos Gitsis, the new CEO of the company.

Aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider Dornier Technology announced Thursday the appointment of Company President Nikos Gitsis to be its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), replacing Janus A. Reyes, as it looks to expand the organization’s business. It also announced the appointment of Joseph Espiritu as its new Chief Operating Officer.

Gitsis is also a director of Philippine cargo airline Seair International and Philippine ground handling provider Transnational Aviation Support Services (TASSI), the company said.

Gitsis says "he is focused on growing the MRO business in the Philippines by expanding the company’s customer base to include operators from around the region."

Dornier Technology was founded in 2008 and was a spin-off of a Philippine regional airline SEAIR, that was later sold to Tiger Airways Philippines, and later to Cebu Pacific turboprop subsidiary Cebgo.

The MRO company, which has its heavy maintenance base at Clark International Airport outside Manila, employs 180 people. It also has line maintenance stations in  Manila, Cebu, Kalibo, Tagbilaran, Davao and Puerto Princesa.

“We are inside Clark’s special tax-free economic zone, so our clients can benefit from an expedited process for the import and export of aircraft parts and components,” says Gitsis.

Dornier Technology is a more price competitive MRO organization due to its convenient location in the region and the fact the Philippines has a large pool of skilled, qualified maintenance technicians and engineers, he adds.

Dornier Technology is certified by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation (MOLIT) and Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) as an approved MRO organization.

The company says it can do line and heavy maintenance for: Airbus A320-family; Boeing 737 classics such as the -200, -300, -400, -500 series; ATR 42 and ATR 72; British Aerospace/Avro BAe 146/RJ, Dornier 328 and Let 410. It also provides: technical training, fleet management, engine support as well as maintenance of aero systems, such as avionics.

Dornier Opens ATR MRO in Clark

Associates with Assistance Aeronautique et Aerospatiale

February 20, 2012

Iren Dornier has partnered with French company, Assistance Aeronautique et Aerospatiale (AAA) to establish a new maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services for ATR aircraft in the region.

The deal was sealed Friday during the 2012 Singapore Airshow. The facility will rise at the sprawling Clark International Airport complex in Pampanga.  

David Nouvelot, AAA head for China and the Philippines, said the Clark operation is the company’s eight site, after two in France, and one each in Germany, Canada, Spain, Morocco and China.

AAA provides on-site support and technical assistance for ATR aircraft manufactured in Toulouse, France, and with over 20 years of experience in civil, military and business jet programs for all major aircraft. It has extensive expertise with Airbus and ATR aircraft.

Seaplane project in Clark gets off the ground

December 20, 2010

By Tonette Orejas

CLARK FREEPORT, Philippines—A team of 50 Filipino mechanics and engineers has started building seaplanes inside this freeport.

The amphibious aircraft is called “S-Ray 007,” said Iren Dornier, who designed the latest project of the South East Asian Airlines (Seair), the airline he chairs and co-founded with Nickos Gitsis in 1995.

“That’s a little bit of a James Bond,” he said, when asked on the famous three numbers. It is actually derived from 2007, the year Dornier first flew and landed the S-Ray prototype somewhere in the Philippines. The first five units were produced in Europe.

The Philippines, he said, is the “right environment for such an airplane,” he said, noting that the country, although with 7,100 islands, has no seaplanes at all.

He said the S-Ray 007 was designed for government, civilian, border patrol, search-and-rescue missions.

This aircraft is a “modern and bigger version” of Libelle, a flying boat that his grandfather, Claude Dornier, flew in 1921, Dornier said.

The basic version of S-Ray 007 costs $300,000. The Clark manufacturing facility targets to make 300 units. The seaplane, which weighs 825 kilograms, can carry two persons. Its wing span is 9 meters.

Among the features include a hydraulic-driven tricycle landing gear that “can be lowered inside the water to move up or down a ramp.”

“I got a few orders. The acceptance is quite high,” Dornier told the Inquirer.

To set up the manufacturing plant here, Dornier first sent to Germany at least 10 Filipinos who worked with the Clark-based Seair in the last 15 years.

In 2004, Dornier held a World Tour using the same Dornier-24 that his grandfather flew in 1944 and which had saved over 11,000 people during World War II.

The eight-month tour, done through the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), aimed to motivate the youth to follow their dreams. It raised $61,000 for Filipino children.

Dornier’s grandfather had built several flying boats such as the Rs I in 1915, Wal in 1922, Do X in 1929, Do.24 V/K in 1938, Do 26 in 1938 and Do 18 E in 1935. The elder Dornier also built the light fighter bomber and trainer Alpha Jet in 1973.