MROs and Completion Centers

Have a look at the interior of this Bombardier Challenger 604 done by Duncan Aviation.

King Aerospace is planning an expansion project to open a location in a third state and increase its work in specialized and advanced aircraft systems integration and modification projects on aircraft as large as Boeing 747s and 777s. The Dallas-based company—which operates an MRO and modification center for Boeing Business Jets and other VIP narrowbody and corporate jets in Ardmore, Oklahoma—has leased two, 58,368-sq-ft hangars at Northwest Arkansas National Airport (KXNA). (AIN)

Dassault is opening NY Mx Center to add capacity after it closed its Wilmington, Delaware location. Daasault made the announcement on February 23rd that the new company-owned Falcon service center is to be located at Long Island MacArthur Airport (KISP) in Islip, New York. The service center will initially operate from a leased hangar at KISP that can house up to six Falcons and will provide scheduled maintenance, AOG support, and pre-purchase evaluations.

Metrojet has broadened its capabilities for work on the Gulfstream G650/ER models. Its Gulfstream G650/650ER capabilities now include an 8C Check following approvals from the FAA, Bermuda BCAA, Cayman Island CAACI, Isle of Man IoMAR, Qatar QCAA, and San Marino SMAR. These are carried out every 10 years, and involves removal of the cabin interior for structural inspection, as well as landing gear overhaul and hydraulic and electrical systems inspections.

Jet Aviation announced that its maintenance facility in Vienna has received approval from the European Aviation Safety Agency to perform line maintenance on Gulfstream G650 aircraft. "We are delighted to expand our Gulfstream capabilities with this additional approval," said Hakan Tin, managing director and accountable manager at Jet Aviation’s MRO and FBO facility in Vienna. "This service expansion is yet another demonstration of our commitment to meeting the needs of Gulfstream owners and operators in the region. A wide range of Gulfstream aircraft are based in Europe, of which the large cabin aircraft such as the G650 are the most popular. The safety and security of these aircraft and their owners are our highest priority, and we look forward to welcoming them to Vienna."

Bombardier service center.

Dassault Aviation is pleased to announce 2022 dates for its Falcon Maintenance & Operations (M&O) seminars. This spring marks the return of a full seminar series after a three-year absence.

This year’s schedule will kick off on April 6 in Paris and conclude on May 24 in Chicago. In all, the seminars will travel to seven cities across North America, South America and Europe. "We are thrilled to welcome Falcon operators back to our M&O seminars, and allow them to once again meet face to face with representatives from our company, our partners and our suppliers," said Jean Kayanakis, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Customer Service and Service Center Network. "The feedback provided during these events is crucial to our commitment to continuously improve the Falcon customer experience."

As in previous editions, the 2022 M&O series will provide in-depth information on Dassault’s latest maintenance and flight operations products and services. The topics addressed during the meetings include:

• Preparations underway for the extra widebody Falcon 6X entry into service
• Recent steps to consolidate and optimize our expanded maintenance, repair and overhaul network and simplify customer access to global Dassault services
• Broadening access to Sustainable Aviation Fuels
• New EASy IV flight deck
• New FalconSphere applications
• Dassault’s Innovative Cabin System (ICS), designed to combine and simplify control of environmental control and entertainment systems.

As usual, the seminars will offer interactive model-specific and general technical sessions covering topics ranging from troubleshooting to reliability improvements and STC updates. Dedicated pilot sessions, led by the Falcon Pilot Support Team will keep flight crews abreast of the latest developments in flight operations.

Duncan Aviation is looking ahead to the future and planning a major upgrade and expansion at its Lincoln, Nebraska and Battle Creek, Michigan locations. The planned work involved should be worth 66 million dollars and cover a myriad of upgrades. Both locations will see 46,000 sq ft hangars with 32-foot high doors as well as 67,000 sq ft worth of work shop and storage. The new facilities will include light-harvesting, radiant floor heating with energy-efficient boilers, and LED lighting with sensors and automatic dimming. According to Tectonic Management Group, the project's design-build firm, the new buildings and their systems will perform more than 25 percent better than standard energy codes. "Demand for the safety and flexibility that business aviation travel provides has continued to increase, as has the average size of business aircraft," said Duncan president Jeff Lake. "This results in increased demand for the hangar space required to complete requested airframe, engine, interior, paint, and avionics modifications for the business aircraft fleet. Looking to the future, we know that to meet current customer requests and needs, Duncan Aviation will need more hangar facilities." Build work is expected to commence in the second quarter of this year and be completed by mid-2023 for the Battle Creek facility and third quarter 2023 for the Lincon plant.

Here is a look at the new ExecuJet MRO in Dubai at the Al Maktoum International Airport finishing up. The facility is expected to open by the Third Quarter of this year. The 15,000-sq-m (163,000-sq-ft) facility is designed to accommodate 18 to 24 business jets at a time. This will include some of the largest offerings from executive jet manufacturers currently like the forthcoming Dassault Falcon 10X and the current Global 7500 and new coming G700 from Gulfstream. "The large hangar doors have been installed, an important milestone as it shows the construction phase is nearing completion," said Nick Weber, Execujet MRO Services regional v-p for the Middle East. "Dubai is a hub for so much global traffic that it merited a large investment in MRO capacity and expertise."

Duncan Aviation recently released this image of a Cessna Citation 525 that was refitted and redelivered to the customer. Most notably is the exterior paint job!

Another new MRO center has come into service and this time it is in Germany. It is located at the Oberpfaffenhõfen Airport (EDMO) in Southern Germany. "We’re very lucky to have this facility," said managing director Viktor Peters. "We receive absolutely great feedback from customers about it."

Gulfstream is expanding its MRO and completions capability at its St. Louis Downtown Airport location. The expansion is expected to include the hiring of 140 additional cabinetmakers and finishers, upholsterers, aircraft painters, manufacturing and operations engineers, and certification inspectors, as well as additional support positions. "We are seeing an extraordinary amount of activity across our sites to support Gulfstream’s current and future fleet, including customers new to business aviation and long-time customers looking to redesign their existing aircraft," said Gulfstream president Mark Burns. "As we strategically expand our service network, we are also increasing capacity for components of new aircraft at sites such as St. Louis that have already been producing interior furnishings for Gulfstream Customer Support."

Bombardier recently announced it has expanded its Line Maintenance Station (LMS) at Le Bourget Airport near Paris to increase its maintenance and repair services for European customers. The facility is strategically located at one of Europe’s busiest airports for business aviation and the expansion is another step in the company’s drive to lead the industry in aftermarket services by bringing best-in-class OEM service, parts and know-how closer to its customers. Bombardier recently boosted its workforce at the Le Bourget LMS, established in 2018, and has added more than 30,000 sq. ft. (3,000 square metres) of hangar space, capable of accommodating up to three Global 7500 aircraft at one time or as many as six Learjet or Challenger aircraft at a time. The expansion has increased the slots available for light scheduled maintenance as well as unscheduled and aircraft-on-ground (AOG) maintenance and parking services currently provided by the LMS. The additional space and technicians are poised to enhance the reach and response time of Bombardier’s locally stationed Mobile Response Team (MRT). Near term plans also include the addition of wheel and battery shop maintenance services.

"As we actively grow our worldwide service footprint, we are creating more and more opportunities for our business jet customers to leverage Bombardier’s high-level OEM capabilities in the form of expertise, infrastructure and connected aircraft technology to deliver the most complete response to their maintenance needs," said Anthony Cox, Vice President, Customer Support, Bombardier. "Our supplemental light and line maintenance capabilities and parking solution at this strategic location complement our existing heavy maintenance offerings in Berlin and London and ensure customers of our already-popular Le Bourget LMS can benefit right now from access to a broader range of top-tier options in the region."

Gulfstream is continuing to invest in more facilities. News comes of a new 55 million dollar paint facility at the Appleton, Wisconsin site. The airframer is also looking to hire another 200 positions. The Appleton expansion involves the construction of a 73,000-sq-ft (6,782-sq-m) paint facility using a paint booth design developed by the airframer and Wisconsin-based paint booth manufacturer Global Finishing Solutions. When operational, the facility will have the capability to paint up to 48 aircraft a year and enable the Appleton site to offer entire aircraft completions. It is expected to open in the third quarter of 2023.

With more and more business jets being delivered within Brazil especially from homegrown airframer Embraer the services and support unit today opened its much larger and expanded MRO facility in Sorocaba, Brazil. It is now double the capacity it was before going from 20,000 sq m (215,278 sq ft) to 40,000 sq m. There are four large hangars of which three of them are for aircraft and components in the MRO and the other providing shelter for the FBO services.

Aviation Maintenance Professionals (AMP) has earned Saudi Repair Certificate for from the Saudia Arabia General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) for maintenance, repair, and upgrades to Saudi-registered Gulfstream, Bombardier/Learjet, Hawker, and Dassault jets. "Initially we were approached by an operator in-country to handle a few maintenance items while they completed a significant avionics upgrade," Allen explained. "The client was pleased with our performance and suggested we apply for GACA approval in order to both oversee the remaining upgrades across their fleet and their ongoing maintenance requirements", according to Brian Allen, president of AMP.

Bombardier has grown its footprint in Asia with an expanded Singapore Service Center.

Well...while former President Trump didn't get his way with the designs he wanted for the new Air Force One aircraft which included a larger flag on the tail...he certainly put a large one on the fin of his 757. N757AF seems to have had a new respray by Landlocked Aviation.

DC Aviation is to open a new heated hangar at the Munich Oberpfaffenhofen Airport in the coming week. The facility offers 65,000 sq ft of heated hangar space that can accommodate the latest ultra-long-range business jets, in addition to a 4,300-sq-ft terminal with a passenger lounge, conference room, and crew lounge. Although it is like an FBO facility the hangar will provide ground handling services and line maintenance but will not operate like the regular FBO in the sense of providing services for any business jet that comes at anytime. It will handle all DC Aviation-operated aircraft and those on ferry maintenance flights. Additionally, it will service aircraft from other operators that have booked parking spaces in the hangar.

Bombardier recently announced the grand opening of its newly transformed Singapore Service Centre, the largest OEM business aviation maintenance facility in Asia Pacific. A key jewel of the next major investments in Bombardier’s growing worldwide customer service footprint, the newly expanded facility features substantially enhanced service capabilities for its growing fleet of Learjet, Challenger and Global aircraft operators. The facility will also accommodate Bombardier’s newly launched Global 8000 business jet when it enters into service in 2025.

Located at the growing Seletar Aerospace Park, the Singapore Service Centre, which opened in 2014, has more than quadrupled its current footprint from 70,000 sq. ft. (6,500 m2) to approximately 290,000 sq. ft. (27,000 m2). The massive expansion introduces exceptional new customer facilities for business jet operators, including a full-service, environmentally-controlled paint facility, advanced interior finishing capabilities, with key support functions, such as engineering, sales and customer support and an expanded portfolio of component, repair and overhaul (CR&O) services. This also includes the option for Global aircraft customers to lease BR710engines from Rolls Royce stored on site, significantly reducing downtime and costs.