The Melaka International Airport (MIA) is set to become the aviation hub for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) for small and medium-sized aircraft, with the construction of a maintenance building costing RM50 million.

Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam said the construction of the maintenance building, owned by APR-Aerospace Engineering Sdn Bhd, would be able to elevate Melaka as a high-technology state in aerospace.

"Under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) the government has identified that aviation MRO services can contribute some RM36.5 billion in gross national income increase and create 20,720 job opportunities to enable the country to achieve developed nation status towards 2020," he said to reporters after the ground-breaking of the project here Friday.

He said the project, on a 1.24-hectare site, would be implemented in three stages which was expected to start within one year and would take five years to be fully completed.

He said the first phase would cover the construction of an MRO hangar for line and base maintenance for small and medium-sized aircraft.

Mohd Ali said the second phase comprised hangar extension to meet product line and workshop while the third phase involved the expansion of APR Aviation Training Centre in Subang, Selangor to Melaka to turn it into a regional flight training centre.