SINGAPORE - Jet engine maker Rolls-Royce is planning to hire 280 more workers here within the next two years as airlines prepare to restart more flights.

The figure includes those who will be hired in its maintenance, repair and overhaul joint venture with SIA Engineering in Changi, Singapore Aero Engine Services (Saesl).

Projecting optimism for the recovery of the aviation sector in Asia-Pacific, the company said on Tuesday (Feb 8) that this will include 150 more people this year.

Another 130 trainees will also be trained so that they can become skilled technicians by next year and be formally employed by the company.

The British company had laid off about 240 people, or 24 per cent of its local workforce, in 2020.

About 80 per cent of the new workers will be deployed in Saesl, while the rest should be skilled technicians who will oversee its increasingly automated engine fan blade-making process.

This comes after news that the aviation sector is looking to increase hiring.

The Straits Times reported last week that GE Aviation Engine Services Singapore is recruiting more than 400 employees in new roles.

ST Engineering's commercial aerospace business will also hire up to 200 more people this year.

Dr Bicky Bhangu, Rolls-Royce's president of South-east Asia, Pacific and South Korea, said in expanding its manpower, the company is anticipating future growth.

"For fan blade manufacturing, we are not labour intensive, we are skills intensive. We are capital intensive. We have put a huge amount of investment in our processes and equipment and digitalisation so that we can ramp up with skilled headcount," he added.

The company has a fan blade factory at Seletar Aerospace Park. Rolls-Royce sees Singapore as its regional hub, and wants to use it to fulfil orders in Asia-Pacific countries.

The firm said it continues to work with tertiary institutions here like the Singapore Polytechnic and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to innovate and ensure a steady stream of skilled young workers.

Its partnership with NTU is its biggest of its kind globally.

Future technologies Rolls-Royce and tertiary institutions are working on include hybrid locomotives and electrification of planes.

Last year, Rolls-Royce's electric planes broke two world speed records, flying at an average of 555.9 kmh over 3km, and 532.1 kmh over 15 km.